So does a one way manned trip to Mars have merit or is it just fantasy and they'd all die within months from radiation? Mars to Stay - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
True enough, especially the US doing it's Athens/Syracuse Rome/Egypt military expansion bankruptcy and import dependence bit BUT the latest Mars lander would be a sign of hope for the West along with SpaceX and Tesla. The world is watching the Mars pix from the US from three fabulously successful rovers the way they watched the Moon landing and Hubble pix. Situation is recoverable, NASA, Mars, SpaceX, Tesla are guides to recovery.
I would want to know that Mars was capable of maintaining an ecosystem (with help from us, of course). Since we have been unable to accomplish this on Earth, I would say more work is necessary.