Yeah there is: Spices which were not available in Europe because Ottoman Empire decided to cut off Christian Europe from silk road. So Europeans weren't going

Yeah there is: Spices which were not available in Europe because Ottoman Empire decided to cut off Christian Europe from silk road. So Europeans weren't going on what if journey, but they were trying to find a way to India, bypassing Ottomans. Spanish found America and it's resources (sugar cane, tobacco, potato, corn) and Portuguese found a way around Africa to India to get back to the spice trade. The thing is that European motivation was clearly defined, while motivation to go to Mars is not clear at all, because there is nothing valuable there at this point. But imagine finding on the Mars an alien shipwreck from 200 milion years ago, there would be several outposts build within this decade, because technology is the spice trade of today.