NASA has done, and is doing, all kinds of research which would be directly applicable to manned missions to Mars. What NASA is not doing, because they don't have the money for it, is the necessary point-to-point-type research to get us to Mars. IOW, they're designing the Orion CEV to be capable of going to Mars, but they're not planning on sending it to Mars, because they don't have the necessary budget to undertake such a thing.

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We want our children to go to the planets. Burt Rutan 6/21/04 K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
Tuckers! Automotive Oddities! Building my hot rod with the help of the intarwebs Those who would delay scientific progress for a little temporary prosperity shall have neither. MachineCast Save the planet, by leaving it! "To be second in space is to be second in everything," LBJ.