Oh, the excitement at the thought of being the first person to die on Mars !!! Ha, wow never thought of that! Do you think there might even be a race or contest to become that very person? You'd definitely have your place in the history books. But I think it's more attractive to become the first person on mars of perhaps the first one to maintain a long-term post there!
Why not? You gotta go sometime. Why not become the first to die on Mars? even if you have to go a little sooner than you would otherwise.
The dangers and unsurenesses and complicatednesses of the whole Mars project are so great, that to have any kind of real success at all, one need hold this dying as a goal attitude, just to make the thing successful.