Let's talk about a year on Mars....

A more rigorous test would be to put them on the space station for the time it would take to fly to Mars and then do the test on a similar facility on the Moon.  

The test that must be run before anything can happen is whether a spinning torus station with artificial gravity is even doable without inner ear issues. It would not be hard to do this test - unless they are afraid of how it would turn out.

If the gravity test works out, then a whole space station can be sent to Mars (all it takes is enough fuel to start from earth orbit and stop in Mars orbit - plus a health allowance for craft going to and from the Mars surface. By space station, I mean JPL in Martian orbit. Such a facility, which would a family colony mission, would be real exploration, not a project. If that works, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune await - although any orbital planetary station would need nuclear power.

Until we are sure about artificial gravity, nothing is possible. If it works, everything else is easy but the budget. Put NASA in the Defense line item rather than Commerce, Science and Justice and we can trade DoD spending for Space - it all goes to the same contractors anyway. Cutting defense without increasing space just means unemployment for the entire sector - it cannot be repurposed.