Being in a matrix is much likely possible than your assumptions. I am not taking any medicine so no choice to drug me and create a fake version of me.
You think people flying in a ship to a simulated red Planet can't be given "something" (something in their foods/drinks maybe) to eat to get them to forget about certain things they are not supposed to see on their journey to Mars, or even get them to "sleep walk" while suppressing their ability to understand the truth around them during their journey? I also imagine that an advanced ship will have large screen that shows a simulated/fake world to make the occupant think that's what the world presently around their ship looks like. Then the ship lands on a part of Earth that has real red dust, in a large man-made space (space many times larger than Dubai large building with snow in them)... and such space could have lots of simulated/fake graphics around.
I think humans could create things like that... maybe just for entertainment... then it gets hijacked by deciever who uses it to deceive people.
...like the Truman show where Jim Carrey character lives under the dome where everything is staged for him but as human curiosity can be very strong his "reality" breaks when he seeks a way to travel out of his "village"
