> It was “physically impossible with current technology for humans to survive a trip” to the Moon when the space race kicked off, too.
No, it wasn't. For one thing, the moon is a heck of a lot closer than Mars.
> The whole POINT of the space race was inventing the technology to solve those problems.
The point of the space race was to demonstrate technological superiority, especially with regard to missile capabilities, in the Cold War.
Calling people "lame" isn't going to address the realities of space travel, from the destructive effects of radiation on pregnancies to the physical and cognitive decline from living in a non-Earth environment for extended periods of time, effects that have been measured in astronauts who spent time on the ISS. Sending humans to Mars would practically be a death sentence for that subset of the species.