Outline Rewrite?

Mars has been a struggle for me and I have not written much in the past few months that it's been in the works. For the first time ever, I actually created an outline, so I had an idea of where to go and to make the story flow better. Now, I don't know if the outline is good.

Is an outline rewrite a common thing? I am guessing it's better to rewrite an outline rather than the bulk of the novel when it's done. I think a fundimental problem with the book is I don't know what genre to make it. I have thought about it being sci-fi but also a drama of being away from your family. This seems like it could be a tricky balance to achieve and on top of that, may not appeal to many people. My opening teaser chapter is suspenseful and really grabs the reader. I've thought of writing the whole book that way (where there's a time-crunch or some impending doom that we're fighting the clock on) but I feel conflicted.

My Robert book is a 'human drama'.... for now and some of my beta feedback seems to indicate making it into a suspense story could be better. I love Dan Brown books and he writes that way, so that might work out for me. Overall, I'm not sure. For a change, I'm not feeling this book and don't know if even a rewrite will help me. I think I need to sit down and think this through for an hour or two, instead of in a flurry of writing emotions.