Yeah the sanest option I've heard is throwing some construction robots up (obviously not easy but far from impossible) to dig us a nice hole to live in when people get there, set up a reactor, start finding water, etc.
Construction "waldoes" are well within our capability for a year out. The Japanese have already been experimenting with on-orbit teleoperation with a synthesized lag of one full second. It sucks to work that way, but human beans are amazing, and I think there's many a talented gamer who would love to work in space from the comfort of planet Earth.