You may assume that the height of Moon exploration is long past with the last of the Apollo missions. However, that notion is rapidly changing due to private companies joining with governments and privately financing lunar exploration and the establishment of permanent stations on the Moon.
It sounds like science fiction, but journalist Stephen Petranek considers it fact: within 20 years, humans will live on Mars. Of course, this talk was given back in 2016 and since then the race to Mars has picked up speed with interesting players the likes of Elon Musk with SpaceX, Boeing, and NASA themselves. Also, the projected time frame to actually land the first people to begin possible colonization on Mars has been extended a few years. That is, with the exception of Elon Musk's determination to launch a crewed mission to Mars by 2024. If the crew will land on the surface or not is yet to be determined. This first crewed mission may serve simply as the first trial run and only orbit the Red Planet then return safely to home as they gather more data on the effects of such a long space journey on human physiology. It could also drop off (from orbit) cargo meant to be staged for the next mission that would land on the surface.
