As humanity continues to observe and explore more resources and regions of Mars, interest in a human “homestead” on the planet’s surface has increased, with NASA naming “Homesteading Mars” one of the 2023 RASC-AL Competition themes. While initially short duration missions may be the first concept proposed, a continuous human presence on Mars will become necessary to continue research, maintain infrastructure, and make the long-duration journey worth its while. The Mars-ARK is a mission architecture that outlines the launch, arrival, habitation, and return of a 4-person crew, who live on the Martian surface for 7 years. The architecture includes pre-mission supplies, launch/cruise/landing considerations, an inflatable habitat, manned rovers, and laboratory spaces to ensure that all mission and science objectives can be met over the course of the crew’s stay on “the red planet”. Essential resources will be mined, generated, or synthesized on the planet in order to sustain the crew over their long mission and develop technology that will make missions of higher complexity and lower budget possible in the future.