The current generation of mega rockets being built by SpaceX and Boeing will hopefully make the next generation of unmanned research far more compelling. They'll enable feats like drilling meters down under the topsoil.
If Mars does indeed happen to be a completely sterile wasteland (which it very likely is given that evidence of life contaminates every crevice of the earth), then human inadvertently depositing microbial hitchhikers on the surface of that world may be the most consequential legacy of humanity 10 million years from now
If Mars does indeed happen to be a completely sterile wasteland (which it very likely is given that evidence of life contaminates every crevice of the earth), then human inadvertently depositing microbial hitchhikers on the surface of that world may be the most consequential legacy of humanity 10 million years from now