Oregon Elephant;
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It would go for that, but it would undoubtibly be unable to start as self sufficient. There is no way they'd be able to hold off until every thing was good to go.
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the journey there would be on some kind of spaceship that would have to be self sufficient, and most of this would be able to continue once the colony was established. it is a long way, it would take a long time and recieving support from earth would not be something they could rely on. while there would be times that they would recieve backup from earth, i think it would be easier, cheaper, safer and faster to build the colony up front as self sufficient.
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The reason that importing would be fine to sustain it is because it would almost certainly be begun as mining or something other thing to bring needed materials to Earth. So the transport could go both ways (import the needed stuff to sustain it on the trip there, and export the minerals on the way back to earth).
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this would not be the easiest way to do it. it would be easier, i think, to make an independent colony and have the colony sent material back to earth on a one way trip. why go both ways every time when you could send everything there on the first trip ?
the material sent back would then not need the same kind of life support, protection, etc as a human crew, and the time spent in transit would not be so critical. if it was a mining operation, it could even be sent back as raw chunks of minerals flung in earths direction.
anther thought: a mining expedition might be better done without human personel at all. there are already robots on mars, exploring. it would be possible to send robots with the capacity to extract minerals and send it back to earth without needing humans there. this would make the expedition easier and safer, and eliminate the possibility that the humans might rebel.