It's not going to be the least bit inspiring to send people to Mars and plant a flag, or ride around in a rover. Find a reason to go there and stay. If we could at least colonize it that would be some motivation.
If you want to drive the cost to get to Mars down, game it in some way. The X-Prizes seem to be an effective way to get lots of people working on various problems.
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/
This technique has worked for centuries: