[AntiKev]

The first Moon missions were flyby's...if I recall correctly. Apollo 8(ish) was the first to circle the moon, and 11 landed. They will do something similar with Mars, except less missions in between, why go all that distance and do one orbit?

[RightWhale]

Even one orbit of Mars would be better than flying by--blink and miss it. A big ship of the kind that would have crew would also have serious cameras and radars, so if they could drop into orbit for 2-3 months, they could map the whole planet in super high res. They could also carry about 100 of these Beagles and Rovers and drop them all over the surface. Could be highly productive. Don't know what the follow-on might be, maybe a fully automated power station and water plant with a 500,000 gallon tank.