You, yes, YOU, can go to Mars. It's a one way trip though.

Ah, I see what you're driving at here.

Holy shit, we can go to the Moon via giant cannon?

(Is that even canon? )

Cannons are very versatile. Here's a clip of me using a cannon to cure hiccups, a test which sadly failed.

[YT="SCIENTIFIC TESTING"]mtEpvTKEiBA[/YT]

I think the OP should go.

People have done weirder things to land a spot in the history books. Personally, I find the thought is tempting. However, my life isn't miserable enough to actually do it. I can, however, see lives spent worse than by exploring an alien world for the rest of my life. And here's the thing: rest of my life. WTF will you do there when you get too old to explore? Are they hoping there will be a whole town by 2050 or something? At some point you'll want to kick up your feet on the porch and scold the younglings.

At some point, you'll need a dentist.

The whole thing is a fake anyway. They're 'casting' crew members now but they have no plan how to achieve the deed in a technical sense? 10 years to go and no plan on how to do it?

It wouldn't be the first time, either.

Odd! I was just thinking today... if I went on a trip to Mars I could be the first Martian dentist!

You could use an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Tooth Modulator!

Yep, and people have died agonizing deaths in godforsaken places wishing with all their might that they'd never even thought of going there.

How much exploring do you think a pioneer on Mars is going to do? First, it's going to be a full-time job just making sure your shelter stays functional (no oxygen, no heat = you die). Then, you've got to make sure your other life needs are taken care of (e.g., your day to work in the hydroponics garden or to recycle the shelter's sewage or to make sure the radiation shields are in good shape).

But even when you do have free time, where are you going to go? How far away from the colony can you walk in a spacesuit? There won't be any trains or air vehicles. Maybe there's a dune buggy-like contraption you can tool around in, but you're not going to go off on a two-week camping trip with it.

No, living in a pioneer colony on Mars and having signed up for a one-way trip means an isolated life trapped in one tiny little corner of desolation. Mars is a giant, cold desert. It has no vegetation, no changing seasons. It has very little geologic interest owing to the little erosion by water throughout its history. Even though Olympus Mons is the tallest mountain in the Solar System, it is not steep enough to be interesting. No snow, no rain. No forests, no jungles. No life. Anywhere.

Like I said earlier, it's going to get old fast.

Aye, there's the rub. We can stay hopeful in the face of mortality because the world of options open to us is enormous. Become a pioneer on Mars and the world of options shrinks to a very small one. You'll never leave the planet and you'll probably never roam more than a few miles from the colony. Everyone you'll ever interact with you already know. The only new things to see are what you yourself build...and those will probably just be additions to the shelter.

Imagine a small colony of a dozen or two dozen people, and a good percentage of them get too old/feeble/sick to work. They still take up resources from the rest of the colony. Does the colony have the wherewithal to offer a comfy retirement plan? I doubt it.

That kind of lifestyle just won't be possible in the early days. There won't be much comfort; there'll be a lot of work and a lot of insecurity.

Probably. Or someone who can remove an appendix. Or treat the thousands of other maladies we humans are subject to.

And what happens if one of the small crew manning the outpost becomes seriously ill? Or dies? What if you lose 2 or 3 in an accident? God forbid, what happens if an accident happens and you are the ONLY survivor? Backup--if it comes at all--is months, perhaps years away.

If they had $100 billion to throw at this project, they might be able to pull it off in 10 years. If and might.

Yes, the whole thing is fake.

The EARLIEST time to consider relocating to Mars on a one-way ticket will be when monthly flights drop off 1000 colonists, their supplies, and pre-built habitats at a time. By that point, there will be significant infrastructure in place and the world--the social one, at least--will be big enough to be self-sustaining.

Presuming something valuable can be extracted from the Martian lithosphere, my best guess is that time will be not sooner than 2150.

There will always be people willing to do stuff like this.

Look at Mt. Everest.

People keep going up there, walking past preserved corpses and sometimes adding to them...and it seems a never-ending supply of dumb asses keep trying it.

You seem to be in a not very nice mood today. Maybe you should consider a nice walk. That's what I just did and I found it refreshing.

Actually probably less than one tenth that.

Regular NASA type missions to Mars that includes six astronauts and a return after a year and a half on planet have been estimated at 75 billion dollars. That is for the program development AND the first three manned missions.

And that includes a FIFTY PERCENT margin (that is, they account for going 50% over budget along the way which is about what the Apollo program did).