I didn't yet watch the video, but my overall point is that Gateway and Moon HLS is not the thing which will help us get to Mars. Or least it is bad for innovation per dollar spent. The best place space station to construct for future Mars expedition should have been in the LEO and fully manned. Moon orbital station is a detour. Actually more of crutch for the Orion. And HLS will land in a different mode than future Mars lander.
I do agree that we need to do small steps before big steps. But overall this "lets save money with reusing Shuttle stack" has backfired spectacularly. And delayed both small step and bigger step for decade(s).
> best place space station to construct for future Mars expedition should have been in the LEO and fully manned. Moon orbital station is a detour
There are real questions about LEO versus deep space habitation, specifically in respect of solar radiation. Gateway will help settle those questions.
> this "lets save money with reusing Shuttle stack" has backfired spectacularly
100% agree. And I honestly don't see us using SLS and Orion to go to Mars. But Gateway will be proving real science and hardware. And SLS, Orion and even the Gateway are more easily deprecated from the Artemis framework than e.g. Starship.
Could we have a better system? Sure. Is there a better path forward if we want boots on Mars in the 2030s? No.
I do agree that we need to do small steps before big steps. But overall this "lets save money with reusing Shuttle stack" has backfired spectacularly. And delayed both small step and bigger step for decade(s).