I don't see how we're really close to that objective, nor would it be a really pivotal accomplishment. NASA was ordered to shift plans away from Mars to the Moo

I don't see how we're really close to that objective, nor would it be a really pivotal accomplishment. NASA was ordered to shift plans away from Mars to the Moon during the Trump admin and even with their efforts plus sending billions to SpaceX, it's behind schedule by years. Putting humans on Mars is far more complicated and we're not even working on it right now. Doing so would be momentous, but it's not like Martians are ever going to be productive citizens. Mars would be 100% dependent on resources from Earth to even survive. And I don't think they'd credit the guy who they paid to build the rocket over the people who traveled.