system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why can't we get to Mars easier by placing intermittent satellites (space stations) along the way?

If planets can orbit the Sun, then surely man-made space stations could be placed into orbits to mimic planets.  We could place many of these into orbits between Earth and Mars.  Then shuttle things back and forth between the shorter distances.
gpt
The distance won't necessarily be that much shorter. Mars and Earth orbit the Sun with a different period, so the position of Mars with respect to Earth changes continuously. Sometimes Mars is rather close to Earth, but other times it is on the opposite side of the sun.

The proposed space stations that are placed in intermediate orbits would show the same effects, depending on when you'd look, they might be anywhere in their orbit and going from one space station to the next in the sequence may require a greater distance to travel than simply going directly to the final destination.

An additional problem is that for every intermediate stop you're going to have to expend fuel to slow down and stop at the station and afterwards again to fly away. If you do the journey in one go, you'll only have to do this once. By stopping multiple times along the way, you will need much more fuel that you'll somehow have to carry with you (which would increase fuel consumption even further) or send out in ahead of you, which would require complicated refueling logistics.