ZikZak wrote:
right now on Devon Island, Canada (which has roughly the same climate
as Mars: see www.marsonearth.org).

""No place on Earth is truly like Mars. Although Mars can be characterized
at present as a cold desert, not even the polar deserts of the Earth achieve
the extremes in minimum temperature, dryness, low atmospheric pressure and
harsh radiation conditions that the surface of Mars currently experiences.
Many aspects of the geologic and potential biologic evolution of Mars are
likely to have been different or remain uncertain enough that any comparison
with the Earth must be conducted with caution. ""

As for sending industrial products
back to Earth, it's much easier and cheaper to fly from Mars to Earth
than it is the other way around. There's no reason to think that a
Mars colony could be self sufficient almost immediately and then
(after some long time) eventually profitable.

This is news. Unless the propulsion system is something we haven't heard
about, maybe similar to something that keeps on ticking like nuclear (?),
breakdowns and maintenence minimal (no Rockets-R-Us stores), not to mention
a few thousand other obstacles, like totally astronomical set up costs
topping the list, I don't think we're going there anytime soon. My great
grand daughters (2 &4) may witness the event of the first landing, but I'm
not really too optomistic of that.