My concern is that humans "on the surface" (really, in habitats) are going to live pretty miserable lives for a really long time. Compare Mars to Antarctica. W

My concern is that humans "on the surface" (really, in habitats) are going to live pretty miserable lives for a really long time. Compare Mars to Antarctica. While there's a significant science-focused presence, no one lives there lives there. While various treaties complicate the issue, to the best of my knowledge, no one even speaks about wanting to spend their entire life there. Living permanently on Mars without extensive terraforming would mean generations of people living out their lives in caves and metal cans, never getting to go outside without putting on the equivalent of a SCUBA suit, at a minimum. It makes for great stories, but as a cradle-to-grave life is seems unethical to help create that situation. Besides, I think gradual (or no) terraforming of Mars is doomed. Getting to orbit is increasingly cheap, and that makes getting to Mars easier, whether by the ITN [1], or more direct method. You can get to Mars with a Cubesat-type spacecraft design. [2] Somebody is going to leverage those possibility to start terraforming Mars, if they haven't done so already. Optimal terraforming probably requires adding atmosphere, presumably via comet impacts. That will take more than Cubesats, but the possibility was demonstrated by DART. Unless our civilization collapses, fast terraforming of Mars is only going to get easier, and probably sooner rather than later, someone will start the process. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Netwo... 2. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/cubesat-at-mars-180971213/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/cubesat-at...