Was the Wright brothers’ first flight useless, or did it teach us lessons that lead to the Concorde and 777?

Was the first automobile so slow and clunky it was useless, or did it lead to the F1 cars of today?

Was Alan Touring’s computer so slow it was useless, or did it lead to this comment being typed on a device that is many orders of magnitude faster and smaller?

Going to Mars will teach us a lot. In the future when we go further it will be useful in ways we can’t imagine today.