>>17
At the rate we're going, the first people to orbit (and later, land on) Mars will be test pilots working for a private space tourism company.
Over the last few years, several private start ups have been working to take people into space for brief joyrides (we're talking about only a few minutes so far). Not only have they made a SHIT TON of money already, they've innovated quite a bit and pushed the stagnating and deteriorating tech of space travel forward.
Think there's no market for such an expensive undertaking as leisure travel to Mars? That's what most people thought a few years ago about leisure trips to the upper atmosphere, and that's been a huge success.