re: Don't take this personally - just noticed your 1st person perspective
You use the collective "we" repeatedly:
"WE can grumble all WE want about having to learn to walk again, but that's what WE have to do if WE're ever to run for Mars and the stars."
Who is 'we'? Do you mean an astronaut or two, maybe three? Or do you mean yourself, and a few buddies? Or do you mean your neighborhood? Or are you absent-mindedly reiterating a goal seemingly not shared by your government: that anyone, millions of people perhaps, can casually visit Mars someday?
Are you serious when you say "we" ?