We Must Address Funding and Preliminary Technologies First

MW: With a a budget of only 14 billion dollars a year
which is less than 5% of the US military budget(a
military budget at least six times that of any other
nation in the world), what do you expect? NASA wanted
to build a reusable heavy lift vehicle back in the
1970s but Nixon wouldn't let 'em because he was afraid
that NASA would justify using such a vehicle to
justify launching manned missions to Mars. And Nixon
wanted none of that. So that's how we got a space
shuttle that is not only not totally reusable but can
only place less than 30 tonnes into orbit. Back in the
1960s we use to be able to place about 150 tonnes into
orbit.
The NASA budget is large enough to annoy the tax
payers but not large enought to really get anything
done, IMO. And the international space station is an
over priced joke that has failed to capture the
public's imagination, IMO.