They didn't even cover the chemical composition and harsh structure of the regolith, which makes converting it to soil impossibly difficult and probably a good source of novel lung diseases. Or the low gravity resulting in issues for long term habitants. Or the length of the Martian day being annoyingly close to but not exactly 24 hours which will fuck up some rhythms. Or the general mineral paucity. Or the distance. Or or or.
Mars is incredibly cool as a science fiction destination, but I'd much rather see us target near earth asteroids as space habitats first.
Mars is incredibly cool as a science fiction destination, but I'd much rather see us target near earth asteroids as space habitats first.