You have a cite for that decade number?  Seems silly to me, given that we've already <i>been</i> to the moon, and over 40 years ago at that.  Surely we should be at Neptune at least by now, no? :)<p>More seriously: what is the value of a Mars mission that we should be paying for it?  There's no meaningful science to be done there (vs. what can be done via much cheaper means, anyway), just lots of eye candy and fantasy material for wannabe astronauts.