>>1704492https://www.space.com/21198-mars-asteroid-strikes-common.html>Small space rocks are carving fresh craters into the Martian surface more often than previously thought, researchers say. A new study finds that there are more than 200 asteroid impacts on the Red Planet every year.Unless you want to play Russian roulette with your colony you are not going to be living in a sprawl of unshielded structures on Mars. The most likely methods will be either a crater colony that is covered in a reinforced super structure or a colony built underground. Don't let a bunch of nice pretty pictures made by some designers for marketing purposes fool you into thinking these will be pretty luxury space condos. The reality will be basically space commie blocks built like fallout vaults either partially or fully underground. They will be cramped, hygiene will be terrible since liquid water will be so scarce, and breathable air will be worth more then gold. Colonists will be drilled into obeying strict water and air disciplines just to survive. The only glass structures on the surface you'll see will be large green houses for agricultural purposes. The life of a Martian colonist will be hard, very hard.
Honestly I don't think a mars colony is going to happen any time soon. A moon colony to service asteroid mining operations is far more likely. It will still be hard and also require bunker cities, but it is so much closer to earth (3 days versus 9 months to mars) and actually has a practical purpose atm. A mars colony will literally be for just colonizing another celestial body. It will have no economic benefit that can finance the colony. Musk stated he wants mars to be like a space silicon valley making money off of software and entertainment, since data is the only thing you can practically export from mars. But who the fuck will have time to do that while building structures, farming, ice mining, material mining/smelting, and maintenance?
