“People underestimate how nasty America is. We’d be better off building colonies in the Sahara than in America.” Radiation on the surface of mars is only ~2.5x

“People underestimate how nasty America is. We’d be better off building colonies in the Sahara than in America.” Radiation on the surface of mars is only ~2.5x the radiation in the ISS. There’s no air there, either. Perchlorates suck for humans but are great as rocket fuel - there’s a double incentive to strip them out of the soil, and there are known mechanisms for doing so. The low gravity may or may not be an issue, but people have survived a year on the ISS in 0G so it’s probably surmountable. Yes, living on Mars is much, much harder than living on Earth. No, it isn’t impossible.