Monopoly-run Mars missions without much money fail, but what about competitively bid ones?
Monopoly-run Mars missions without much money tend to fail, but what about competitively bid or competitively structured ones? We don't yet know. The closest thing to competition that Lockheed and JAXA's socialists have to competition regarding Mars is ESA's socialists. If NASA finally offered a Mars-related competitive prize, then perhaps Elon Musk would lower the cost of Mars missions like he claims to have lowered the cost of launching payloads into LEO. NASA CAN offer competitive prizes, but won't (unlike DARPA):
http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes