NASA is still wasting time, money, and resources on meaningless programs, instead of investing all that effort into designing, building, and launching the components for a viable, self sufficient settlement on Mars. Example: Collecting samples from Mars and returning them to Earth will be extremely expensive, and pointless.
Currently, none the Mars programs that result in spending time and resources, such as search for life, ancient geological history, micro-analyzing (return to Earth) Regolith samples are necessary to gather data and information relevant to a successful Mars Settlement program. They all function to delay the implementation of the one Critical Mars Mission.
IMO, all that time and effort should be restricted to, and directed at, Mars Settlement.
Currently, none the Mars programs that result in spending time and resources, such as search for life, ancient geological history, micro-analyzing (return to Earth) Regolith samples are necessary to gather data and information relevant to a successful Mars Settlement program. They all function to delay the implementation of the one Critical Mars Mission.
IMO, all that time and effort should be restricted to, and directed at, Mars Settlement.