[manicdee]

The engineering challenges of recovering a rocket are greater than landing a tin can on the moon and bringing it back.

As for landing on another planet, in order to get to Mars, SpaceX has to first get a reliable means of putting resources into orbit. Being able to recover rockets means there is less time spent building new rockets and more time spent building the thing that ends up going to Mars.

Being able to power-land a launch vehicle in an atmosphere means that it should be possible to power-launch a landing vehicle designed to land on another planet with an atmosphere as opposed to simply landing on the vacuum-exposed surface of the Moon.

So yes, from an engineering perspective this is bigger than the Apollo program, and from a human resources perspective this is bigger than the Moonshot. Doing more with less: this isn't about dollar economics, it's also about material and labour.

When SpaceX starts their Mars mission, they won't be using anything like the Saturn V. That rocket solved the problem of launching a mission to the Moon by throwing brute force at the problem. SpaceX is approaching the problem with more finesse and more advanced engineering.