Its also in an entirely different part of the moon, from an entirely different orbit

It’s like saying visiting the marianas trench and Everest are the same because they’re both on earth

Putting people on Mars US equally useless. Any colony on Mars would require enormous support from Earth. It would never be self-suffient.

Mars would need water, air, energy, raw materials, fuel and everything else for (basically) ever.

There is zero to be gained (here) from a Mars colony. Mars lacks a magnetic field, air to breath, water to drink or cultivate crops, a temperature suitable for plant or animal life, fuel sources to build industry, supply chains for the construction or maintainence of the simplest electrical systems.

Talk of Mars is purely a PR play. Someone will be first. Yay. But Mars will play no part in Earth's future.

I think we should aim for Ceres[1] instead, which is way more resources rich compared to Mars for a sustainable colony. And a perfect starting point for exploring the rest of the asteroid belt[2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Ceres

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_asteroid_b...

Mars has actually quite different environment to the Moon if you wan't to do surface testing: no atmosphere, different gravity, abrasive dust, different day and year length, different solar constant, etc.

For spaxe infrastructure however - sure, stuff mined and manufactured on the Moon can definitely help any planetary missions.