As NASA has shown in the 30 years, "safety first" does not work as a prime directive, if you want to advance space travel. Musk stated in a recent talk with NASA,"Going to Mars is not for the faint of heart." and "If safety is your top goal, I wouldn't go to Mars."

[1] https://youtu.be/Jv5LjA62Uw8?t=3480 [2] https://youtu.be/Jv5LjA62Uw8?t=3644

'Apollo: Race to the Moon' by Murray and Cox described how the Apollo engineers drew their priorities from Kennedy's speech: Man. Moon. Decade, in that order. There's a difference between genuine safety and bureaucratic safety, something NASA has admittedly forgotten.

I have head that moon dust is reputed to be a consideration, as it creates a type of environmental problem that would not be as extensive a problem on Mars. My understanding is that, due to a lack of fluid and chemical erosion, it tends to be extremely fine and abrasive, and it clings to everything due to static charge, making it hard to keep out of compartments and machinery.

They're both definitely too far for a rescue mission or evacuation that wasn't planned for in advance. In terms of the old eggs/basket metaphor, it becomes a question of whether you want to use half your straw to weave a second basket, just in case the first one breaks, or if you want to use all of the straw to make your one basket as strong, redundant, and well designed as possible.

melt sand it turns into smooth glass, wondering if you couldnt do something similar with a few focused mirrors