While thinking about a manned mission to Mars while reading the Going to Mars…a proposal thread in Great Debates, after reading the Will we live to see a permanent human presence in outer space? thread, I had this thought: rather then sending a group there with a plan to explore, preform research, and return, would it be more efficient to send them there as colonists?
I admit I have no idea as to what all would go into such a project, but I have to think on some levels it would be more cost effective to make a Mars mission a one way trip. Granted, more supplies would have to be taken to be able to establish an ongoing settlement than a temporary site, but how much more would be necessary? For a round trip, they are going to be taking groceries for a couple of years, research and analysis tools, etc. So they’re going to be taking a pretty big payload. Why not throw in some farming equipment (of course farming would probably have to be done under pressurized domes, maybe hydroponic with artifical lights), some construction equipment, and a machine shop?
No doubt, either Mars trip would probably be done with multiple vehicles and payloads, but the obvious advantage of making the trip one way would be that it wouldn’t be necessary to have everything necessary there for the return trip back here.
Granted, it would be more complicated than that (medical facilities, animals if they would want to occasionally eat meat, and goodness only knows what else), and possibly this amount of complexity would be what would make this unworkable.
I’ve posted this here because I am thinking about the mechanics of such a venture. Let’s save the moral and ethical issues about sending people on a one way trip for another thread. If starting a colony would not be possible, we don’t have to address those issues anyway. If it could be done, I’d have to think there would be no shortage of volunteers for such a project, including myself (though I doubt I’d be found to be proficient enough in any of the skillsets needed for such a project to make it past the first level of screening.)