The NY Times has an interesting op-ed on this topic today.
Maybe we should consider sending people on one-way trips to Mars because if they’re explorers as earth-bound ones were, presuming a return trip may be too expensive – or even undesirable.
We’ve had lots of experience as humans of sending people on one-way trips. Maybe we could turn Mars into a penal colony like Georgia and Australia once were 🙂
More seriously, though – this has been proposed in various contexts before, but if the people signing-up for the program are truly volunteering, then why not?