Planning One-Way Human Trip to Mars - How do you do it?

In other news... (and direct from ExtremeTech)

What would you think about a one way trip to Mars?  While many of us have used that as a harmful threat it seems that NASA and DARPA are exploring the prospect for real.

Worden said that despite the allure of settling distant worlds, we should first go to the moons of Mars, in order to do comprehensive telerobotics exploration, the report said. We're not sure about that idea; we heard Phobos and Deimos could be pretty scary.

Of course you may remember Phobos and Deimos were the moons where Doom takes place, while I think landing on the larger planet might be a little easier that doesn't seem to be the case with these guys.

The article talks about building a "Hundred Year Starship" powered by electricity and with enough room to ferry the crew and supplies on a one-way trip to the distant planet.  Considering it takes about 200+ days to get to Mars, and that you're going to be there "forever" you need more than just a few astronauts to make it happen.  You need a settlement expedition similar to what Europe did when discovering new world.

First you send your scouts to setup base camp, gather food, and setup shelter.  Then send wave after wave of settlers until you have enough people to maintain a community.  It was expensive back in the 1700's, and it's not going to be any cheaper now.  Not to mention the ships won't be reusable, they need to be recyclable by the settlers, oh and there is no going back.

Anyone on board?

Related Web URL: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2371219...