[throwawayffffas]

> Mars is a planet that is VERY hostile towards (human) life at the moment.

It's not very hostile. It's the least hostile place after Earth. That's why you see all of the "lets build colonies on mars" "plans". These are not plans they are more like fun topics for people in various fields to theorize and speculate.

To do some of that speculation myself. Any settlement on Mars or anywhere else other than earth for that matter, won't be there for people to live on but to support some activity happening there. Think more science outposts and or refueling stations than cities.

[_heimdall]

Presumably the first players able to colonize Mars would be nations. I'd expect those outposts to be much more imperial in nature. They would be staking a claim to territory and resources, and installing military defences for those claims.