Currently, we can't even maintain the ecosystem that produced us. We should not waste resources trying to build a new one that can't even revert to nature when we mess up.

Didn't the European orbiter recently detect a minor atmosphere around Mars? We apparently still do not know just how much water or other minerals are buried under the surface. This being based on the recent discovery of a potential 12 mile long body of water.

So no terraforming atmosphere on Mars,,
Why not use the existing 1% atmosphere that creates harmful winds that totally ruin the visibility and safety that you would have if its a 0% air moon like silence & calmness,, Therefore ,,why not reprocess all the existing atmosphere into useful materials and kill those sand storm winds? Then we wear our atmosphere as usual ;-)

It would be irresponsible to go and live on the Martian surface, as indeed the the purpose of the Mars One project. You would not be protected against cosmic rays as Mars has a tiny magnetic field. The atmosphere would hardly protect you against meteorites even at the densest considered in this article. So go and live inside Mars, with on the surface solar thermal power stations that would be very dependable in the minimal atmosphere that now exists except in times of dust storms every six years or. I'm not going myself.

Then why all the hype about sending volunteers to Mars? Mars this and Mars that. What about all the billions of tax payer money that has been wasted on all this Mars BS? Who's in charge of the tax payer cash register?

Duh... I've hated all this focus on Mars. Studying it is one thing, but all this money wasted on trying to eventually send people there and setup a base is a horrible waste of intelligent minds. Turn those resources toward improving Earth.

We should colonize the solar system with rotating habitats !
These can provide 1G gravity and shielding from radiation sources.
For backing up Humanity, colonizing space is the absolute best destination.

Here's how you terrafrom Mars. 1, Send masses of autonomous spaceships out to the asteroid belt. 2. Nudge - very carefully! - hundreds of asteroids to bombard Mars until it has something like Earth's mass. This will also heat up the planet, while providing more water from the asteroids (Ceres is rumored to have subsurface water, if we're willing to sacrifice it). The heat will melt the ice and the dust will trap solar energy in a greenhouse effect. 3. Drop tons of Mars-adaptable seeds, probably GMOed. 4. Wait a few decades (longer?) for Oxygen to build up, while setting up airtight enclosed habitats in the meantime, and/or cave dwellings to protect against radiation. 5. When air is ready, inhabit liberally.

it's dead, Jim.

I just laugh at all these puny ideas of terraforming Mars. It can't be done because it has no magnetic field to deflect incoming sun radiations and any atmosphere we 'temporarily' put there would just be bumped out to space again by the sun. No magnetic field means no life period. Mars may once have had one but it's long since died out because the planet is just too cold internally to support a metal 'ball' interior and molten outer layer that revolves and creates the magnetic field. And this cannot be fixed without moving the entire planet closer to the sun--probably within the orbit of Venus.