They were literally 'inventing the wheel' of space travel in the 1960's to meet JFK's deadline. Four years may sound insane to you, but they did in 8 during a

They were literally 'inventing the wheel' of space travel in the 1960's to meet JFK's deadline. Four years may sound insane to you, but they did in 8 during a time they were still using slide rules and the integrated circuit didn't even exist for 80% of the duration. To me it's more insane that anyone is putting priority into more manned missions when you can launch at least 10x unmanned for the same cost. Scientifically speaking, I'm not sure what exists to be gained by a human on another planet versus a rover. A manned colony sounds cool but that's about the extent of its usefulness.