Let's talk about where Artemis goes from here....

The Mercury astronauts insisted that the human element was essential to the mission. At the time, this was very much the case. NASA did it without crew this time, but most did not notice. Oops

Had there been people on board, there would have been much more coverage, leading to a bigger budget. Transferring NASA funding from HUD and Other Agencies to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee would have seen trade-offs within the aerospace community rather than with it. Oops again.

A Moon base is a good idea, but for its own sake, not for Mars. Until the use of centrifugal force as a substitute for gravity is proved out and calibrated, there is no going to Mars safely. Once it is calibrated (assuming it can be without messing up human balance), the mission could include landing on Mars, but getting scientists into orbit in a Mars station, a Jupiter station, a Saturn station, etc., is a better use of resources. 

The same technologies for growing food and sheltering from radiation are needed either way, but if you make the problem keeping scientists and their families safe and well fed, these issues would be tackled more urgently - and solutions useful for growing food on Earth would result. Such solutions would end agricultural pollution and the need to restrict population in the developing world.