Pencil-necked geeks
Well, keep in mind Steve Squyres at Blue Origin is the same Steve Squyres that headed up NASA's MER program with Spirit and Opportunity. The dude does have some space exploration cred.
"...And the failure of that premature trip will poison the minds of policy-makers and taxpayers so that funding for more worthwhile ventures will dry up–perhaps indefinitely."
Bro, that sounds way too much like what I had said was the result of the Viking mission which failed to find life on Mars in the 70s. But let's not go down that rat hole again.