It's the infamous "unknown unknowns". Stuff we're not even aware we should be aware of. Stuff that will fuck us up in new and interesting ways.
If we ever do make it to colonizing any other planet, the road will be paved with the bones of the dead we sacrificed to find out what we shouldn't have fucked around with.
In another fun example, the idea of using microwaves to heat things up was also discovered completely accidentally. A [self taught] engineer working on an active-radar system noticed the system he was working on was melting a Hershey's Mr. Goodbar in his pocket. He then used it on a few other foods to confirm, and the microwave oven was born.
I think one of the biggest benefits of colonizing Mars will be things we can't even imagine. We'll find all sorts of great new ways to kill and maim ourselves, but we'll also discover plenty of new amazing tools we can use to do awesome things with. Over time the former will be mitigated and the latter exploited. Colonizing, as always, will be a game for those who are willing to accept a few decades being lopped off their average life expectancy in exchange for making way for a greater life for those to come.
Have we mitigated ways to kill and maim ourselves?
> Colonizing, as always, will be a game for those who are willing to accept a few decades being lopped off their average life expectancy in exchange for making way for a greater life for those to come.
I'm not sure that's an accurate description of colonist motivations.
But that Martian dust that gets all over the solar panels is also loaded with toxic perchlorates. Every time they wear a suit out, they have to absolutely insure that none of it gets into the living space. Good luck.
"Anybody who is saying they want to go live on the surface of Mars better think about the interaction of perchlorate with the human body. At one-half percent, that's a huge amount. Very small amounts are considered toxic ...."
[https://www.space.com/21554-mars-toxic-perchlorate-chemicals...]