re: At least half of the reply was his own words and they seemed on subject.
I'm pretty sure as things stand now any manned mission to Mars could not happen any earliest than 20 years from now. Mainly because of ISS and current policies within government. That Barry see this being more than twice to five as long a time frame is not surprising.
As you rightly point out Barry and others have on their agenda a much closer body and they being very machiavellian see this anti Mars attack as the way to get there. Barry doesn't see himself shooting his own foot with this alien life must not be brought back to Earth at any cost thing! Strange how he doesn't care a bit about Stardust and it's sample to be returned...
--Chris Vancil