This is probably not going to be a very popular position but I'm going to say it anyway: there is no rational reason to bring a human back from Mars. In fact, there are precious few rational reasons to send a human to Mars to begin with. Robot technology has advanced to the point where they can do all the science better than we can. The only reason to send humans to Mars is to colonize, and if we're going to think se…
Well Ron, you've got a big advantage over all the other folks here. You've almost been there already by yourself with your remote agent for the DS1. (Ron built the remote agent SW when he was at the JPL/NASA: http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html ) So your opinion is a good one, but will not impress the big masses. The same held for the moon. A purely political accomplishment for the US. And a big one. Colonizing…
I'm not sure that's the case anymore, we've had so many successful robotic missions - to Mars, other planets, comets, etc. - that all captivate the public for a span and return valuable data for subsequent mission planning. Pretty sure PR is neutral factor now in deciding on human vs robot missions.