Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is a better candidate for colonization?
The moon. It's closer, it has pre-made internal cavities, it's far easier to evacuate if something goes wrong (a catapult and a few days travel vs a rocket and months of travel). Also, we can actually get there. This Mars colony is in the realm of fantasy, when we don't have a means of getting astronauts there without dying of cosmic-ray cancer on the way. In contrast we've put a man on the moon. Multiple men. We kno…
> a catapult and a few days travel
We don't have catapult technology that would work on the moon without solving significant technological challenges. I don't think engineering challenges should hold us back (it's half the fun of these missions), but you cannot use "we don't have the tech" as an argument against mars, and handwave it away for the moon.
> The moon. It's closer, it has pre-made internal cavities,
Mars has lavatubes as well.
> we don't have a means of getting astronauts there without dying of cosmic-ray cancer on the way
People will not die of cancer of cancer in the way. It is likely there is an increased risk to developing cancer, it's not crazy. Some estimates put it at a 20% increase. Hardly a death sentence your post makes it out to be.
> Also, we can actually get there.
Energetically, Mars is not that much further away from us than the moon. It has a thin atmosphere that allows for aerobreaking, and is a useful resource once landed.
> In contrast we've put a man on the moon.
We've put a lot of robots on Mars as well. We've actually got more recent experience landing things on Mars than on the moon, especially large things.
No one is talking about landing humans on Mars without first refining a lot of technology, without being able to reliably land craft with literally tonnes of equipment.
Personally, I'm excited about both prospects, and I'm excited that SpaceX is finally developing the reusable heavy lift capability that we should have had years ago, but for whatever reason people stopped persuing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_lava_tube
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/18417/how-big-is-t...