NASA is being permanently investigated by comissions, and all reports come up with that its management is the worst possible. All the wrong decisions you can think of will be made, no doubt about it in my mind.
Nasa never was a scientific entity, never had scientists in management, and so forth.

As to the cost of sending an intelligent robot on Mars, it would be initially about $500mil per flight, probably 10 times less than sending a bunch of stupid human beings over there.

ES