Only two variables of the Drake equation can be meaningfully estimated: rate of star formation and fraction of stars with planets. The number of life-supporting planets per star is surprisingly ill-defined (what number is that for Sol?). All of the other variables are basically knobs that let you control what you want the answer to be.

> There was recent news from NASA about the discovery of organic molecules on Mars and the possibility of life there at some point in the past.

It should be pointed out that the organic molecules in question are known to be created by abiotic processes.

> As for the Fermi paradox I'm still of the opinion that its solution is simple but depressing: Interstellar travel is so difficult that by the time you're capable of it you don't need it anymore, and even when you're capable of it you still don't get very far outside of your stellar neighborhood.

Well, there's an even more depressing possibility: interstellar communication itself is effectively impossible, let alone travel. Any beam will spread out over a larger and larger radius, so even the most focused laser beams will become too weak to detect within I think a few hundred light years, so we're not even talking about trying to find aliens in the galaxy, we're talking about trying to find aliens in the nearest stars.