You wouldn't be waiting to die. You would be the vanguard of a possible independent arm of human civilization. Your work there would be critical to figuring out the viability of colonizing Mars.
You go out and build things. We'll ship all the stuff the first people need for several years, but they will need to learn to find their own water, manufacture plastics, grow food, and all that stuff.
Is the guy proposing this going himself to set an example?
If there is going to be any kind of colony, it needs some means of sustaining life and babies.