This is actually not so bad. Returning to earth is (relatively) cheap. Returning to earth from the moon is really cheap, so the extra fuel mass is affordable. From Mars you probably want to scavenge it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_situ_resource_utilization

https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/29cxi6/i_made_a_delt...

Has nobody considered sending an older astronaut and not bothering with a return trip?

I could imagine a lot of volunteers if you promised 5 years worth of dried food, comms back to earth and lots of fame.

Of course they did. It sparked a huge controversy back in ~2010-2013, when some known scientists and popular science authors (I'm pretty sure it was either L. Krauss or M. Kaku, but can't for the life of me find a reference now) started speaking up that sending older people on one-way trips would be a great way to lay foundations for a Mars colony, and there are lots of people who would happily volunteer to work until death on Mars.

Nobody knows their own life expectancy and geriatrics are perhaps not most suitable to survive in a harsh environment, running around an alien planet all day.

I'd volunteer. It would be the adventure of a lifetime (literally).

But this is something that's not going to be allowed.

Look at all the safety measures they're putting in spacecraft to ensure people live. No way is anyone going to approve a one way trip to Mars.

I sometimes wish people were more comfortable with their own mortality and death in general, but that's how all the humans with "warrior genes" died off.

"No way is anyone going to approve a one way trip to Mars."

If you would have the rockets and equipment and a place in a small state to launch the rockets: who do you need to approve it?

That's a long way off, if it ever happens. Rocket launches will be tightly regulated, in fact they already are as ICBMs. Any private launches without approval from a big power (or all of them) will likely be stopped by any means.