You don’t seem to realize how orbital mechanics works. It costs a lot to lift enough propellant to space to get to other deep-space locations, which is why orbital refueling is promising. For a Mars mission in particular, if you refuel at the Earth Moon L1 (Lagrange point), if you slingshot around the moon, you can…

i was pretty sure the answer was human blood.

Jar Jar Binks wakes up in his bedroom, turns to Suzanne Pleshette and says, “You-sa wont be believin’ the crazy dream meesa just had!”

Thank you for saving me the need to post pretty much this very same comment.

Seemingly, figuring out the cosmos is not as much of a priority as maintaining borders, allegiances, enemies, or citizens, especially after ICBMs were attained, humans landed on the Moon, and the Cold War slightly dissipated like a pungent fart in the wind, which just might come back to cause a collective vigourous…