Manned Mission to Mars

It has been dreamed about, thought about, written about and had films about, but it has never been done.  Colonize or explore?  Science or socio-economical?  Long-term (10+ years) or short-term?  All questions asked and explored.  As anyone with any interest in space science that writes anything, I shall explore the possibilities myself, if that hadn't been clear by the title of this post.

The first thing is that it should be done with one to two short-term stays in preparation for the final long-term stay.  The two short-term stays would be smaller vessels that would carry equipment for both scientific exploration of the planet as well as housing and, I'm sure it could be done, a greenhouse.  It's too bad we can't beam forward some medieval peasants and have them go along - they could help build some nice walls and such there, too.  Heh.  No?  Fine.  The short trips would be purely for setup, staying the minimum length of time possible while still being able to do what needs to be done in preparation.

The long term stay would need a huge ship (5 times bigger, perhaps) for both shelter in case the one set up by the previous visits falters, food storage, safety in case of terribly inclement weather, a place to input scientific data and communicate with Earth or/and a space station, as well as carry inside of it a small vessel that would be capable of getting them off of the planet and close enough to Earth (though preferably all the way) so they can rendezvous with a shuttle to bring them back to Earth's surface.

Really, there should be a space station set into orbit around Mars before sending the long-term shuttle, for a variety of reasons.  Safety, weather updates, communication, data transmissions, a refueling point for any shuttles going to and from the surface.  Ideally, it would work as a dock for a space shuttle that would be parked there for the surface-dwellers in case something goes awry without using the long-term spacecraft's space on a space faring vessel in its hulls.

 Terraforming would be ideal, but I'm not so sure it would be good for the first set of long-term Mars residents.  The third, really, so we know for sure that we can be there without too many problems that we can't counter.

In terms of location for the settlement, we should probably go Apache or Comanche style - built partially in rocky mountain/cliff face for extra shelter and support.  I can't imagine anything else would be able to stay up, at least at first, without natural assistance.  The people staying long-term could even put together shelters away from such outcroppings while they are there.

Number of people: ~125.  Deaths will happen.  Procreation will probably need to happen.  50 "civilians", 20 doctors, 25 scientists in various areas, 20 people able in building things (particularly buildings) and 5 botanists to take care of the plants in the greenhouse(s).

The greenhouse(s) would be needed for a few reasons - 1) food, 2) getting more O2 into the air, and 3) a little taste of home for the psychological state of the settlers.