All of these problems can be solved with our current level of technology on Mars. After you establish the base near a water source, you can grow your own food, you can make oxygen, you can mine for whatever elements you need.

Nobody says it's easy, but it's doable.

> pond_lilly 4 hours ago | link [dead]

> Exactly, like bacteria in our guts that gets replenished by consuming foods grown in Earth soil. On Mars this stuff will die out right away, and to replicate it you will need to create another Earth.Gut bacteria is just a tiny example, there is other stuff like bone problems, vision problems, etc. I am appalled that instead of fixing mess here on earth, the only known planet to support life, we waste brains, time and resources on these idiotic fantasies

Well there's one thing, if we can manage to build a survivable habitat on a planet like Mars--relatively mild as it may be, compared to other space places--surviving on a planet on the verge of some global climate catastrophe is going to seem like a piece of cake ;-)