While having people go to Mars for research is one thing, the idea of permanent civilizations there is not realistic. Instead space exploration should focus on making moon colonies as soon as possible.
>It's actually easier to live on the moon then mars due to it being far closer allowing for supply drops
>The moon unlike mars actually has economic interest in the form of mining and setting up further space operations, making further space travel far cheaper
>Unlike mars, there actually would be practical reasons for having people stationed on the moon for long/permanent which means the chances of it getting colonized is actually realistic