Will we, Can we, ever become martians?

[Yonadav]

Solar wind is inefficient in stripping atmospheric gases with heavier atomic and molecular weights, such as nitrogen and oxygen, or carbon dioxide.   This is why mars still has a tenuous atmophere 3.8-4 billion years after last signs of any global magnetic field.

The length of time required to strip sizeable fractions an artificial Martian atmophere of 1 atmopheric pressure would on the order of tens to hundreds of millions of years.  

In other words, even extremely pessimistic estimate of efficiency of mars terraforming still see us replenishing the Martian atmophere thousands to tens of thousands of times faster than solar wind can strip it away.    So if we take 100 centuries to give mars a shirtsleeve atmophere, that atmophere should stay for millions of years before it would need replenishing, provided solar wind is the only thing eroding it.

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It would then require a large technological and industrial base to support and maintain it.   That base can not exist independently without continuous raw or proceeded material impor  from earth simply critical mineral resources required likely do not exist on mars.    So no isolation leading to biological speciation is likely to occur.

I didn't say it would be easy, or quick. But starting with smaller domes in a side valley for farming, and living in the cliffs, for protection from solar storms, etc., is the way I would go. Martian sand would make glass panels for the domes.

I'm pretty skeptical of growing in domes (especially glass domes) on mars. Glass would have to be pretty thick, because the domes are going to be pressurized. After that, think there is a serious problem with regulating the temperature on the Martian surface. At night it is going to be really cold and during the day a glass dome is probably going to get ridiculously hot. And then there is the need to provide air for the plants. That would be a real trick. Plants change the air. They breath CO2 and release oxygen. Where to get the CO2? Yes, CO2 is in the Martian atmosphere, but at far too low of a pressure to use. And guess what? Growing enough plants to keep a person well fed is going to produce more oxygen than the person can breath. So how can we regulate the oxygen in the dome? The same problem applies to growing underground under artificial light. If you grow enough to keep people fed, you produce more oxygen than people can breath. To burn off the excess oxygen, you need a fuel to burn. You don't have any fuel to burn on Mars. Of course, oxygen is flammable on its own once it reaches a certain level, but that's too late.