I wouldn't.

Budget rockets are not my idea of space travel.

In 1964, during the NYWF the NY Times had several scientists ponder upon the year 2000. One of these articles pertained to space travel. Ironically, one voice claimed it would be a crime if after racing to the moon we did nothing. For all intents and purposes that is exactly what we have done. We have no staging station on the moon. No space ferries taking folks to space stations in orbit.

Cosmic rays are nasty stuff. Solar flares are not quite as nasty, but nasty enough. We have been deprived of the wealth of minds working on manned space exploration since the first gas crisis in 74, along with an increasingly self-absorbed populace focused on entertainment and escape from our technocratic culture. This took the winds out our solar sails and steered many bright minds into fields other than hard science.

Innovative, even radical, thinkers are needed.

The ideal human spaceship is the planet Earth.

A spaceship should utilize the same "technology" the planet does to protect it's occupants:

Polar Magnetic fields
Gravity
Rotation
Mass

The ideal shielding from cosmic and hard solar radiation is a generated magnetic field. A nuclear reactor employed to power an external magnetic field generator is, in my view, the future staple of spacecraft shielding. The ship should travel in the center of this field and this field should be powerful enough to bend the path of charged particles. Like the Earth, the solar radiation should be drawn along the fields of force away from the occupants.

This is not cheap. We are talking billions of dollars in research and development.

The "deflector" shields predicted by Star Trek were right on the money. Particularly since much of the weaponry was based upon directed charged particles. These "deflector screens", unlike Star Trek, will never be switched off. They will constantly operate to shield the occupants.

Naturally, a ship that employs this type of shielding must be large. Otherwise the super powerful magnetic fields themselves will harm the occupants. Need it be as large as the fictional Enterprise? I don't think so, but it will certainly dwarf what designers and engineers are toying with now.

Almost nothing worthwhile in terms of material constructs is ever cheap.

These future spaceships will not be immune to cosmic radiation, but will give enough protection to permit humans to explore our solar system more safely. Mass alone is not the answer to shielding. Technologies must be developed. We are still in the Lindbergh era in terms of spaceflight. Science has not kept up with the needs of man in space.

Colonies and space stations will eventually also be equipped with such nuclear powered magnetic shield generators. A moonbase and a future Mars base should augment their environments natural shielding against hard space radiation.

Human ingenuity will permit us to go where we have not been able to go before. As our solar system is mapped and we learn more about the radiation we are constantly subjected to, we will be better able to intelligently counter these detrimental forces.

Wernher von Braun was the product of his time. His spirit and determination need to be embraced, if not the technological details of his various plans to reach Mars.