I think Mars is dead and will be an expensive yet important mission in learing what we will need to colonize a proper planet like Venus
Couldn't agree with that, Rallem. In what way do you see Venus as a 'proper' planet and Mars (I suppose) as an improper planet? As Mike points out, Venus is just too herrendously hostile. The first major success of this mission would be the confirmation of subsurface ice. The next would be finding organic molecules in the ice - although that wouldn't necessarily be evidence that there was ever life on Mars.
The reason I believe Venus is a proper planet for colonization and Mars is not is that Venus can have a magnetic field if a fast enough rotation were introduced to it. (In theory anyways) The question is, if we could introduce a spin onto Venus, should we make it turn clockwise like the other planets or counter clockwise like it already has a slow rotation? I know the atmosphere of Venus is terribly hostile, but I think the only way to add such a rotation would be to throw a comet almost the size of Mars at it, and if we could ever figure out how to do that I think the comet would force most of the existing atmosphere of Venus into space and hopefully replace it with a hydrogen/nitrogen atmosphere.
