Jim Funaro, an anthropologist at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, is quick to second the idea of taking great care in picking the proper mix of Mars expeditionary teams.

Funaro waved a cautionary flag about flying just white American males to the red planet. Tempers can flair, macho decision-making can overrule common sense, and ego-tripping individuals can put everyone and the entire long duration mission at risk, he said.

"Females in general have different strategies of interaction than the male. Females, in general, tend to find it easier not to compete with one another," Funaro said.

There are strong issues to be looked at in an all-female Mars crew, the anthropologist said. "It seems to me that we should look at this more. This is a real possibility."

Mixed singles, married couples, or uni-sex crews might be matched to specific Mars missions, like first time exploration contrasted to later settlement of the planet.

Odd shadows are destined to flit across Martian landscape in future years.

A fleet of airborne Mars craft can take exploration to new heights, said Larry Lemke, project manager for Mars airplane technology development at the NASA Ames Research Center, near San Francisco, California.

Lemke is still in the clouds, bolstered by a successful August 9 test of a Mars airplane prototype. Released from a balloon at 103,000 feet over Tillamook, Oregon, the craft took some two hours to reach ground. Winging its way through thin, Mars-like atmospheric conditions, the glider executed a series of maneuvers on its way toward Earth.

"Not only can I breathe again, but I can actually walk with a little jauntiness in my step," Lemke told SPACE.com. "It was unbelievable. We had perfect flying weather and the airplane did everything we asked of it and more," he said.

Mars airplane engineers at NASA Ames are working with experts at the Naval Research Laboratory, near Washington, D.C., who are pioneering small robotic flyers for use in military situations.

The Mars airplane tested is seen as the smallest size vehicle that’s practical for zipping through Mars skies. "It flies on the hairy edge of being controllable. The airplane not only flew well, it had performance margin left over," he said.

The Ames craft is also built for folding. It can fit snuggly inside the aeroshell of a Mars entry probe, then released high above the red planet, unfold, and begin a swoop over selected target points. Future test versions will have a propeller propulsion system, Lemke said.

Aerial inspection of Mars’ varied terrain demands multiple numbers of vehicles, each specially outfitted with science gear depending on type of mission to be flown. A future squadron of Mars aircraft is likely to include one big enough to be piloted.

"There is not one Mars airplane anymore than there’s one Earth airplane," Lemke said.

Making a humans-to-Mars mission happen anytime soon -- at a cost of tens of billions of dollars -- is yet another story.

The Mars Society is strategizing future steps such as carrying out experiments in artificial gravity, as well as dispatching instruments to the planet itself. Additional Mars analog habitats may be plopped down in Europe and in Australia too.

These projects can help galvanize the public-at-large to support sending expeditions to the fourth planet, Zubrin said. "Humans will go to Mars when there is a movement strong enough to make it happen. That’s my fundamental premise," he said.

Helping to energize the Mars Society planning is Robert Aronsson, Chairman and CEO of Apollo Energy Systems in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The company touts a banner: "Clean energy for the 21st century".

A recent convert to lobbing people to the red planet, Aronsson and his company are supplying fuel cells and other hardware to power up the Mars Society’s habitats. The group is also backing the building of a first generation, crew-carrying Mars rover.

"It’s fun being associated with a bunch of people who want to go to Mars and breathe carbon dioxide," Aronsson said.

So enthralled with the prospect of a humans-to-Mars program, the firm’s chief scientist has invented a carbon dioxide-to-oxygen conversion scheme. Using a reversible fuel cell and other gear, a company study suggests "tons and tons" of oxygen can be churned out by the apparatus during day and night operation, Aronsson said.

"We wouldn’t have dreamed of such an apparatus for use on Earth. But for Mars, it’s a whole different world…a whole different ballgame. We need oxygen there and we have a way to do it. So the bottom line is, in about 10 to 15 years, we are going to set up an oxygen plant on Mars," he said.

That’s one refreshing thought for Marskind…perhaps one giant leap.