[api]

Nobody’s tried because they are a short flight away from South America. No point. It’s cheaper and easier to fly it in.

There are skeptical arguments against Mars settlement but the Antarctica thing is kind of a weak one.

To point out one more problem with it: there’s legal and treaty restrictions in play for that continent. You can’t just go. That’s another limiting factor.

[general1465]

You can try the same thing in Greenland or far north of Canada. But nobody does that either, because there is no reason to do so.

However put a reason to go to Mars, i.e. alien shipwreck and there is going to be multiple cities within end of the decade.

[elevaet]

Can you explain why and how we would build cities on Mars if we found an alien shipwreck there? That doesn't make any sense to me.

It would likely cost bare minimum 10-100 billion dollars to put a few boots on the ground on Mars, how could we possibly build cities there within the end of the decade?