apostrate:
"I just saw on the morning news that they have 100 people narrowed down who have volunteered. They may actually leave sometime this Fall and the trip will take about 8 months for them to travel the 200 million miles to get there."
There is no way that any manned trip to Mars will take place this or any other year before the end of this century. The US simply doesn't have the infrastructure in space or on earth to launch such a dedicated mission.
As for Witnesses being on board it would be nice if we could send them all to Mars.