I'd love to see a man land on Mars in my lifetime, but I doubt it will happen. As long as there's money to be had in prolonging the process, NASA will never again put a man on the moon, much less on Mars.
This Mars crap is just that, crap. We as a nation now, more than ever, need to carefully balance the returns vs costs. Just what will a trip to Mars cost and what will it give us in return? To find out that maybe, just maybe a few million yrs ago some form of life existed there? A few single cell creatures that have been imbedded in rock?
To me, life on other planets is of no concern unless it is shown to have been intelligent and that ain't gonna happen.
To be honest, I could give a damn.