"but the thought of setting foot on Mars raises hairs on the back of my neck and gets my heart racing" The thought of living the rest of your life in a small c

"but the thought of setting foot on Mars raises hairs on the back of my neck and gets my heart racing" The thought of living the rest of your life in a small capsule with no possibility of getting back and with no real-time communication to earth doesn't sound that promising. And the scientific value of such a mission is not that high either. Wait 10 or 20 years and everything a human could do on Mars could also be done by a robot. Effects (on humans) of living on Mars could be assessed with animal testing. If you want to send humans there wait till the robots have build some base station. Sending robots would even be economically more feasible: With humans you waste lots of energy and storage space just for life support. With robots you don't need to care about this and can use this storage for other things instead.