Except Mars has already had total life annihilation, so I'm not sure what the point of using that as your argument is... Stick a few people on an already-annih

Except Mars has already had total life annihilation, so I'm not sure what the point of using that as your argument is... Stick a few people on an already-annihilated planet where they will never become self-sufficient, anyways? If you want humanity to escape vulnerability on earth, your best bet is to not go into another gravity well at all. Esp one with no ionosphere, thin unusable atmosphere, brutal storms, and toxic fine sand everywhere. The moon makes a lot more sense -- easier to manage shipping/trade with earth, no gravity well. And if you need off a planetary body completely, build orbitals. Also many life-terminating events for earth -- local (galactic region) supernovae or other mass irradiating event, our own sun flaming out, etc. would just do the same to Mars.