what are the advantages of a Mars colony? It's not like we'll be shipping things back to Earth.
I'm for exploration and all that but there's a pretty good point. Figuring out how to make the desert habitable on this planet is a pretty good test run for the Real Deal.
This argument about Mars protecting us from an extinction event on Earth any time in the next 250 years seems like baloney. If that's an actual concern I would invest in something Earth-based first (e.g. underground bunkers).
Asteroids don't cause extinctions by coming in and blowing everything to smithereens. Rather, the ejecta causes firestorms, and an impact winter can wreck the biosphere and prevent sunlight from reaching the surface. But even during the worst of this, Earth will remain more hospitable than Mars.
There's no reason for a self-sufficient (nuclear?) underground or underwater habitat to notice global firestorms or impact winters. They would notice a direct hit, but you can hedge against that by building them in multiples around the globe.
I'm for exploration and all that but there's a pretty good point. Figuring out how to make the desert habitable on this planet is a pretty good test run for the Real Deal.