What a terrible conclusion to a potentially great article.

You have conclusively shown that a Mars colony is impossible for generations.

But we need to deal with the onrushing climate catastrophe NOW, in this generation, immediately.

Your conclusion should be, "We need to put aside our dreams of colonizing Mars until we've stabilized the Earth".

> we are damn good at difficult!

There's no evidence at all that we are any good at "difficult".

We are good at "clever" and even "tricky" but we have yet to solve even one actually difficult problem, like "How come people starve to death while a third of the world's food is wasted?" and "How can we prevent psychopaths from taking political power and wreaking havoc?" and "How can we avoid destroying the only ecosystem we have ever known?"