(10) It is in the national interest of the United States to commit to a challenging set of incremental goals for the Nation's human space flight program in order to facilitate the scientific exploration of the solar system and aid in the search for life beyond Earth and to commit to the attainment of those goals.

(11) While the ultimate goal of human space flight in the inner solar system is the exploration of the planet Mars, there are other important goals for exploration of the inner solar system that will advance our scientific understanding and allow the United States to develop and demonstrate capabilities that will be needed for the scientific exploration and eventual settlement of Mars.

(12) A bold and sustained human space flight initiative of scientific exploration should contain progressively more challenging objectives, including missions to the Earth-Sun libration points, Earth-orbit crossing asteroids, the lunar surface, the satellites of Mars, and the surface of Mars.

(13) A human space flight initiative with incremental goals and milestones will allow a continuing series of accomplishments to be achieved throughout the duration of the initiative, permit the `lessons learned' and capabilities acquired from previous implementation steps to be incorporated into subsequent phases of the initiative, and allow adjustments to be made to the implementation of the initiative as new opportunities or challenges arise.

(14) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration should develop a roadmap and implementation plan for a progressive program of human space flight beyond low Earth orbit in support of the scientific exploration of the solar system and the search for life beyond Earth.

It never mentions precursors. It does describe a reasonable incremental approach to develop, test, and exploit technology. This approach can be developed over a period of 10-20 years without a substancial increase in the NASA budget, which is politically important because there doesn't appear to be any increases on the horizon for the foreseeable future.

To use a sports metaphor, you're wanting to swing for the bleachers. The author is advocating moving the players around the diamond through singles, doubles, and the occassional bunt. While home runs are exciting, those who swing for the bleechers all the time also tend to have the highest strikeout rates. I'd much rather have a sound infrastructure that can support all sorts of space missions than to put all the bets on a manned Mars mission, especially when I remember what happened to public support after Apollo.