And, to be quite frank, the cost/benefits curve of manned missions to the Moon was rapidly approaching flatline.

As we already know how to keep people alive in space and/or on the ground in a gravitationally depleted environment for more than a year, I strongly question any justification of manned missions to Mars. A continuing series of unmanned rovers is incredibly less expensive and will yield us, over time, the same information.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.