I mean, Antarctica, or the bottom of the sea, or the peak of Mount Everest all wipe the floor with Mars on every metric you can think of.
It's all relative. Compared to 99.99999%+ of all of reality, Mars is an absolute garden spot.
but really, if we get wiped out it's going to be self-inflicted
Or, it might be some kind of energetic event we can't even see coming or do anything about. Mars is really just an interim step to humanity becoming interstellar.
compared with the difficulty of setting up a viable colony on Mars, the difficulty of sending a few nukes over there is negligible
Against a Mars civilization with industry and the intent to defend itself? Good freakin luck! It's hard enough to have a credible response when the flight time is only 20 minutes. When your super "rapid response" takes 2 months to get there, and it has to get there through the vacuum of space while announcing its presence with a hot fusion rocket exhaust, good luck! What's the alternative? "Stealthy" craft on Hohman transfer orbits? It's going to take a whole lot to conceal that initial boost.
(Don't get me wrong. Everyone will have stealth, precisely because it is hard and unexpected. But it will be very hard to pull off.)
It's all relative. Compared to 99.99999%+ of all of reality, Mars is an absolute garden spot.
but really, if we get wiped out it's going to be self-inflicted
Or, it might be some kind of energetic event we can't even see coming or do anything about. Mars is really just an interim step to humanity becoming interstellar.
compared with the difficulty of setting up a viable colony on Mars, the difficulty of sending a few nukes over there is negligible
Against a Mars civilization with industry and the intent to defend itself? Good freakin luck! It's hard enough to have a credible response when the flight time is only 20 minutes. When your super "rapid response" takes 2 months to get there, and it has to get there through the vacuum of space while announcing its presence with a hot fusion rocket exhaust, good luck! What's the alternative? "Stealthy" craft on Hohman transfer orbits? It's going to take a whole lot to conceal that initial boost.
(Don't get me wrong. Everyone will have stealth, precisely because it is hard and unexpected. But it will be very hard to pull off.)