No, he's saying what I've been saying for a while. LEO is the best
place to develop and test systems for eventual Mars/Asteroid missions.


Thats certinally true for a first step, the second step should be a long term
moon base, and some circular trips to near earth asteroids.Take extended orbits
for long duration stays where in a emergency you can get back pretty fast.

Then begin nuclear propulsion and scale it up before attemopting a mars
mission.

Before crew leaves for Mars we should have already in orbit a mars orbiter
station, some mars lander bases all set up, a fast emergency supplies vehicle,
large power to weight to get needed emergency supplies to a mars transit
vehicle..

then and only then send the first crew flying with a backup vehicle either
attached or in a loose formation.
HAVE A GREAT DAY!