Great minds work alike
LJK,
My compliments to you. One way Mars colonization missions is the most cost effective way to establish a permanent human presence in Space. I wrote a paper a few years ago published in the "Journal of the British Interplanetary Society" proposing this very idea. I estimate that a very tightly managed program run by red hot engineers could colonize Mars for about $80 billion minimum. However if the project was managed by lawyers, accountants and MBAs, it would cost an infinite amount of money and never be completed.
What management model do you think NASA currently has?
Gary