[ActorNightly]

The point is that we don't have technology (or at least not proven) to make a habitat on earth that can reliably provide isolation from harsh atmosphere.

When you are sending people to space on an experimental rocket, with experimental supply for an experimental habitat, all of that shit better be engineered to a huge safety factor, because its not a matter of if things will go wrong, its how often will they go wrong and what the impact will be. To deal with that kind of unknown requires a level of technology that should make it possible to live in Antarctica for extended period of time without any external shipments coming in to resupply. That means heating, oxygen generation, food resources, air filtration, full medical bay capable of advanced surgery, and a bunch of other smaller things that all matter in the end.

[christophilus]

Plus insane storms and winds that I’m not sure Antarctica will properly simulate.

[mikeyouse]

Antarctica might be okay as a demo site on that front; https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QK5M_UfofRU

[hagbard_c]

Those "insane storms and winds" in an atmosphere with 2% of the density of earth's atmosphere won't be much of a problem.

[ActorNightly]

That works both ways. Sure you won't have much density for air to move things, but things moving through air also don't have the drag to slow them down.

[tlb]

Yes, for example taking off or landing a rocket on the surface blasts particles of sand out sideways at 1000s of m/s. The particles can fly in the thin atmosphere for kilometers and sandblast everything. Our intuitions about how far and fast tiny things can fly are only true in an atmosphere of similar density.

[Recurecur]

Your intuition about how far sand particles can fly at high velocity in the Martian atmosphere is way off base…

[ActorNightly]

While he is exaggerating a bit, the problem still remains - dust can be deadly to equipment because the grains will move way faster. You also have the problem of dust particles colliding and becoming charged with nothing to dump the charge to. A human habitat has to hold positive air pressure, which means that it has to generate its oxygen or get it from the atmosphere.

If we don't have the experience of buildings stuff on earth where we can test things, we sure as shit not gonna be able to do it on Mars.

[dotancohen]

It will be when it covers your solar cells with dust.