Wow Have You Got That Wrong
Most ChemE's forget a large portion of their chemistry (anything not relevant to production) once out of school and have to learn ME type principles of energy and mass transfer as well. Chemists tend to work in a theoretical or small scale repetitive mode where yield and costs have little relevance. Chem Es make sure the dollars roll. They do make extensive use of computers and data analysis.
Mars is far different from the Moon so lunar field tests are not likley to be better than simulations on Earth designed to simulate actual measured Martian conditions.
Regards,
Mark