I find this surprising. I recall watching/reading accounts (from sources that were definitely on-board with the venture) claiming that unanticipated solar flare

I find this surprising. I recall watching/reading accounts (from sources that were definitely on-board with the venture) claiming that unanticipated solar flares add a lot of complication. But even disregarding the perils of such a trip, there's so much to contend with that makes it not just a exciting hot-spot for pioneer types. The static buildup due to soil up to 50 times as fine as dust on Earth (soil full of toxic perchlorate salts too), living for the rest of your life in 38% the gravity human bodies have evolved in, zero nature or anything else we evolved in, and of course living in a bio-dome without Pauly Shore. I wish they'd teleport us there with better, and better, VR equipment. So everyone on Earth could experience Mars first hand.