Who’s to say we won’t develop better technologies in the next 10-50 years that would make colonizing Mars a much more pleasant experience? Getting our feet on the ground there means setting up for whatever comes next, in my opinion. 100 years ago spaceflight seemed crazy altogether to most people. Now it’s almost routine. Mars seems crazy to people today. See where I’m going with this? It might be fraught with challenges and dangers, but we need to learn what exactly will prevent us from advancing in order to overcome it.