>>11148393there isn't really much else beyond, unless you mean so far beyond that putting a base on mars makes literally no difference
mostly the impulse with terraforming mars (or anything else) comes from the fact that we are keeping all our eggs in a single basket by sticking to only earth, and while earth will certainly be the best we have for a very long time to come it's not going to last forever
mars is also seductively earthlike in so many ways, despite being very inhospitable compared to earth it's a lot more hospitable than anything other than earth and itself
what else is even close? venus, with its many times worse atmosphere problems and yearlong days? a truly barren rock like the moon? at least mars has days and seasons and weather as we know it, compared to any other celestial body the difficulty of getting it to the point of having surface liquid water seems to be the least extreme
