IMO what is really needed is to abandon the idea of going to the moon or Mars in the foreseeable future. The reason is simple - we could spend 2.4 billion dollars a year on a lot of other things that would increase our knowledge in the fields of space and subatomic physics. Unless we go to Mars and find the solution for string theory, or an exception to the Heisenberg Principle, then the trip is a gigantic ‘so what.’
With the exception of Jupiter, I really see no reason to visit the other planets in this solar system. It’s cool, and it makes for great photos in the Astronomy Picture of the Day, but what’s the good? It would be much more useful to find a way to make a spacecraft go faster, and make it possible for it to communicate from great distance. That would would make it possible to send a probe out of the solar system, and to report back what it finds.
We really need to figure out gravity and it is worth spending a fortune on that alone. Sending people to Mars will not fill that need. Find the missing pieces in our knowledge. Learn the physics. When that’s done, trips to Mars will be simple.
Of course the most important priority is radically reducing the cost of launch. If you figure that out, you can do a whole lot more exploring for much less cost. Until then, we are all just fighting over what scraps of science that can be obtained by pouring billions into NASA’s futile bureaucratic efforts.