More of the same...
Same old arguments for manned space travel, exploration, colonization, and all that... "gotta get off this rock before it blows up" and all that... yeah right. Even IF SLS/Orion and whatever modules will be required to get to Mars actually works, it's still a FAR cry from an established, self-sustaining independent colony. All that stuff is basically just space cadet dreams and nothing more, at least til MAYBE the late second half of this century, if then.
By the time we're ready and capable of sending humans to the surface of Mars with some chance of successfully getting them back alive, robotics and automation will have further developed to the point that it will be expensive and ultimately unnecessary to do so. We're already seeing a revolution in capabilities with UAV's and other military systems that are working their way out into more and more applications and we're seeing more cutting edge research creating capabilities that were undreamed of just a decade or two ago. Think of how antiquated our current robotics and automation will appear in another 20-30 years (AT LEAST) when current talk says we should be about ready to send humans to Mars...
For a tiny fraction of what a manned expedition to Mars would cost, we could send a platoon of robotic explorers, something like a cross between R2-D2, C-3PO, and a Terminator to Mars to do research, not for 30 days to a year (which is mandated by return timing for human missions-- you either leave within 30 days or you stay at least a year) but an ongoing mission for MANY years, possibly decades. All this rubbish about "robots don't know what to look for" will disappear with AI and more creative and capable programming, SPECIFICALLY to look for the "unusual" and "out of the ordinary" in any situation. Such robots could function for a decade or more on the surface, supplemented by various sample-return missions to send back interesting materials they've recovered for laboratory analysis in LEO or in labs on Earth (depending on contamination concerns) and they could cover a lot more area and a lot more dangerous situations than a human mission ever could hope to explore. They can "sleep" through the long radiation-dosed coast to Mars via standard rocket propulsion that we have now, not requiring food or oxygen or waste disposal or water or maintaining their mental stability and physical health in a manner to allow them to complete the mission, not needing radiation shelters or high levels of shielding... They can be landed on Mars with 100% of the cargo capability of the vehicle being dedicated to surface operations systems-- no need for return vehicles, ensuring that everything ends up on the surface in close enough proximity and in condition good enough to ensure a return to Earth for the human crew. Robots will stay on Mars forever. No risk of biological contamination, suit damage or seal degradation (a REAL problem that will have to be overcome), surface life support systems, pressurized rovers, and all the other systems necessary to support humans and keep them alive will not be required.
Additionally, other than this "year long" ISS flight, NASA is doing NOTHING to conquer the many problems that MUST be solved before a Mars flight is even feasible. Even this year long ISS mission is only a first step; surviving a Mars mission will require at least TWO years in deep space more than likely. The technical requirements that will have to be surmounted aren't even being addressed-- things like cryogenic propellant storage in deep space for protracted lengths of time, cryogenic propellant transfer, and many other issues are at most on the back burner, if they're on the radar at all. NASA is throwing everything it has into development of a super-expensive HLV rocket (SLS) that will STILL require at least six launches to mount a Mars mission, but which will only launch AT MOST every 2-3 years. This will make it prohibitively expensive to maintain as an operational system over the long run. In the meantime, these other serious issues, hardware and module development, etc. are all getting short shrift, as if they'll "magically appear" once the rocket to carry them is perfected... NONE of this stuff is being funded, and without these modules and systems, Orion itself can really do NOTHING-- propulsion-wise it's not even as capable as Apollo (it can't go into lunar orbit and back out again by itself without a booster stage (ICPS, CPS, lander, etc.)
All this stuff is just talk. The system isn't even being organized properly with the correct division of labor and tasks and research and development, design and testing, management and program allocation necessary to develop a Mars capability... it's currently set up to distribute gubmint pork to the SLS (former shuttle for the most part) contractors, and that's about it.
If NASA and their masters in the Administration and Congress were SERIOUS about getting to Mars, they'd have a timeline. They'd be setting up programs to develop the hardware necessary-- pressurized rovers, hab modules, in-space propulsion (and the necessary associated systems like long-term cryogenic propellant storage and cryogenic propellant transfer), crew health and medical issues research (granted this is basically ISS's main reason for existence, but it's basically at a very elementary level-- certainly not a "demonstration level" to show how these issues will be successfully addressed, and besides, doing it on ISS keeps it within Earth's magnetosphere and therefore in a radiation environment far more benign than that in deep space, through which a Mars mission will have to operate for close to two years at a minimum), etc. These are the things NASA MUST have and be able to do to go to Mars... They should have farmed out the development of the "super rocket" to SpaceX or ULA or whomever and should focus THEIR limited resources on answering the REAL questions and developing the capabilities that will enable a Mars mission to even be feasible.
A Mars mission isn't impossible-- but trying to do it on the old "Apollo" model or methodology isn't going to work, either. Heck, there wasn't the money to do an "Apollo-style" Mars mission even when the Apollo program already had developed and paid for MOST of the necessary technology (in the rocket and spacecraft and most systems, anyway... they'd have still needed the other stuff I mentioned in the way of long-term propulsion and propellant storage and transfer, modules, long-life suits (Apollo suits were literally falling apart after a couple days of operation on the lunar surface!), pressurized rovers, surface power and life support systems, etc.)
The fact that ALL NASA, Congress, and the Administration seems capable of concentrating on is the shiny new rocket tells me that this whole thing just isn't seriously thought through... If it were, it'd be better focused and better organized, at a minimum, not to mention better funded.
Oh well, I've come to expect nothing more. Politicians just don't have the vision and desire to see the long term and commit to it, ESPECIALLY in this day and age.
Later! OL JR