so what type of missions could this reliably be used for in the future that justify the cost? it seems it flew for ~2 hours which seems expensive and risky to m

so what type of missions could this reliably be used for in the future that justify the cost? it seems it flew for ~2 hours which seems expensive and risky to me? I know the craft was relatively cheap and the experiment was worth doing but going forward with mars, can we use these effectively somehow?