What can a person do?

The other day I got information about the competition from NASA with a prize of 1 million dollars. The task is to find a way to produce sugars or conditions on Mars. It can be seen that people seriously thought about conquering Mars. It's strange why not start with the moon, because it's much closer, but oh well ...
And I thought, and something exists invented by man, not based on the conditions of the Earth. After all, all we can do is copy the already existing process and just adjust the conditions. We have not done anything that is not consistent with nature or its products. There is not even anything to be based on the conditions of the cosmos and was made in space. Each planet has its own eco-system, possibly its own rules and ways of interaction. Yes the world is similar, but if so why is it not the same. Why can not we find life anywhere else ...
Sugar on the planet Earth is produced not because it is needed, but because there is a possibility. Perhaps there are other sources of nutrition and energy that can be obtained but under different conditions. After all, the conditions for the existence of life on Earth, in fact, are very narrow and the deviations are small, and the cave leads to death ...