Cool. Just plain cool. I have been fascinated with Mars since childhood and can’t get enough pics and info about the planet.
:’) I wholeheartedly agree.
There are just two planets besides Earth where humans of the living generations have a shot of planting a boot (and the US Flag), Mercury and Mars. Some of the larger asteroids, as well as some of the moons of the gas giant planets, might also be on that list, but it’s a mighty long way to any of those. Building a large, mass-produced, robotic landing program to be first to get to the more distant ones and study them (as well as plant the Flag in order to have grounds for claims later) is something I’d like to see.
In my modest view ;’) human missions to Mars should start with putting a space station into orbit around Mars, giving astronauts a way to explore the surface from orbit using a large number of robotic surface rovers and so on, as well as a long-term habitat and safe haven, all while building a wealth of experience with very long space voyages to and from, and without the risk of a direct ascent to landing and (attempted) direct ascent back to Earth.
A mission to Mercury should be a follow-on from a long-term presence of astronauts in the vicinity of Mars and those to-and-from voyages. It might be practical to put a station in orbit around Mercury (though it might not be as well), but regardless, having a large “yacht” to cruise to and from Mercury, do science from orbit, and land and take off again using a much smaller vehicle that’s carried along with the “yacht” is an approach that would be incremental.
A Mars station would be a probably larger version of just such a “yacht”, but built specifically for more or less permanent Mars orbit. It would be sent via a long, dull, slow trajectory, with no crew, and the crews could be sent back and forth with fast movers. Human missions to Mercury have the luxury of a short orbital period, meaning multiple windows in a given year. Both experiences (Mercury and Mars) will be needed and useful for deeper space missions, such as the asteroid belt (humans to Ceres for example) or Jupiter (nearly 2000 times farther than our Moon).