Armada of Martian Probes Will Study the Planet, Inside and Out--but

Saw this just now in IEEE Spectrum Test & Measurement News ...

> NASA has postponed the scheduled March launch of the InSight mission:
> There isn't enough time to fix and thoroughly test the vacuum seal on
> the spacecraft's seismological instrument. The next favorable launch
> window for such a mission would be in 2018.

And this illustrates the huge problem with trying to develop Mars, or
NEAs for that matter. You get a favorable launch window once every
couple of years. At other times, the object you want to study, settle,
or extract resources from may well be on the other side of the Sun,
completely inaccessible with our current (or near-future) technology.

Whereas, the Moon has at least one favorable launch window every day.
Got a problem with your spacecraft? No worries, fix it and launch the
next day. Has something broken on site? We'll get you a replacement
part next week.

This seems so blatantly obvious that the continued clamoring for mining
NEAs and settling Mars seems really astounding. There's a world the
size of Africa right over our heads, a few days away ALL THE TIME, and
so *of course* it is the next source of resources we will develop. I
just wish we could all pull together on that, instead of so many pulling
in unproductive directions.