>>10666239>better radiation shieldingWhy bother? We already have a simple & effective process to avoid radiation:
1. Dig hole
2. Inflate habit in hole
3. Make bricks from Mars dirt
4. Stack bricks on top of hab
You can connect as many habs together as you want until you have a giant shopping mall sized enclosed space of rooms, labs, greenhouses, offices, workshops etc. Whatever you want.
We just need to get rid of the regs preventing us from building a fission reactor off Earth. Solar won't be enough to build the complex remotely with robots, and it definitely won't be enough to power a large settlement or do anything useful with 48% sunlight and panels that keep getting dusty.