2016: Donald Trump upon becoming the President gave notice to NASA that he wants a manned mission to deep space before his first term is over. He backed up that statement by granting billions of dollars to NASA to make this happen.
So far it has been one year since the notice from President Trump and not one peep from NASA except one statement, basically telling the President they will need hundreds of millions more if Trump is serious about putting a man on the moon again. All this on the heals of NASA promoting the hell out of going to MARS in 2015. In fact a movie called MARTIAN was released in 2015 to further the notion of our deep space exploration was very much real. Now in 2018, NASA is singing a very different tune with an eager president willing to put his money where his mouth is. 
Let me know what you guys think of this bizarre turn of events by NASA
I suspect the "arms race" during the Cold War was a primary motivator for sending a man to the moon. NASA is probably holding back because Mars is far away and launching a rocket requires extensive preparation. We only have satellites taking images of the terrain on Mars but the actual climate is still open to speculation.
good point...but i was told that we went to the moon like 11 times and now we dont know how to send anyone to the moon for some reason. i was reading up on the ORION project to go to mars and they were having problems with going pass the VAN ALLEN RADIATION BELT. This I thought was kinda funny considering the moon is past the Radiation belt.
It could be because NASA is afraid to support Trump given his more incendiary comments. I'm not surprised NASA is hesitant because they are low on funds. Also, if valuable resources were found on Mars, then astronauts would be there in a flash.