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Or procreating on the space ship.

Presumably any initial ventures that far afield would have a fairly small and very select set of passengers. People who are particularly intelligent or otherwise gifted. Or, indeed, multi-talented.

What if there offspring just aren't that bright? How can you ensure the mission succeeds over the course of several(/many?) generations?

Religion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphans_of_the_Sky

How is that not a one way trip?

Staying on Earth is also a one way trip then.

I think the point was more about a one-way trip for a single person.

I'd agree that it's not a one-way trip for humanity, though. Once some of us get there (e.g., progeny of the original crew), eventually some of us could get back to Earth too (at some later date). Assuming Earth isn't destroyed by that point...

Probably by the time the progeny get back to Earth the current species will have self-annihilated and the earth would have returned to a more peaceful place, the atmosphere recovered, the vegetation replacing the asphalt and the oceans clean and pure. A few thousands years peace is exactly what the Earth needs.

Without the "trip" part.

It's not even a one-way trip unless you count procreation. It's likely a part-of-the-way-then-die trip.

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