This calls for a true hero

This is not for me, but it's a brilliant idea and merits study. One way solo trip to Mars.

This is not for me, but I can see that for many, it would be a completely rational decision, and not a suicidal one. The mission would be planned so we'd continue to send supplies, but we just don't plan on bringing them back. Not right now.

And what if it were a true suicide mission? Would that be completely awful? I believe, but can't track it down at the moment, that the physicist Freeman Dyson calculated during World War II that it would have been more more effective to remove the gun turrets from bombers and reduce the crew by 2 - making them lighter and faster, but could not carry the argument of the "gallant gunner defending their crewmates". It's counterintuitive, seems cruel, but bears consideration.

When a boy, I dreamed of space flight, but not particularly of heroism. I dreamt of the Star Trek variety, take everyone with you in complete comfort, be back home in time for tea.