One-Way Trip to Colonize Mars

• May 8, 2006 | 8:30 p.m. ET
Risking it all on Mars:Would you chip in a million dollars to have someone go on a one-waytrip to Mars? How about $100,000, or $10,000? It may sound like theultimate revenge, but X Prize founder Peter Diamandis is floating the idea as a privately funded way to start settling the Red Planet.

The plan, which Diamandis outlined this weekend during the International Space Development Conference,assumes that 100,100 contributors would drink the Red Planet Kool-Aid.It also assumes that all the medical, technical and logistical challenges involved in setting up a permanent Mars base can be solvedfor about $8 billion — far less than NASA's projected price tag.

( One-Way Trip to Colonize Mars )