Early colonies on Mars can make much of their structures out of mud bricks, and shortly thereafter out of more refined concrete, steel, and glass. Yes, the mach

Early colonies on Mars can make much of their structures out of mud bricks, and shortly thereafter out of more refined concrete, steel, and glass. Yes, the machinery to make these materials will break down occasionally, same way you'll occasionally ruin an axe while chopping wood. In which case you'll fix your axe or die in the winter. On Venus, you will be importing every ounce of steel, glass, and soil you need for a long, long time, because what's accomplishable with a shovel on Mars will require the Venusian equivalent of an oil rig to reach down to the surface and bring resources back up. You will have to pry every square inch of livable space from Venus, much of it with imported materials. That is not a colony, that's an outpost. (and to be clear, an outpost I think we should have) But that's the near term game. Show me a feasible plan for terraforming Venus and I'm all ears. Ultimately what makes Mars more appealing is that ALL of the land will eventually be habitable with protection in simple structures that provide shelter, some sort of air processing, a window or two, and maybe a fence to keep your dog from digging up your neighbor's yard. Where as on Venus humanity will be stuck in manufactured bubbles for millennia.