Makes more sense to me to just park a Space City in a LaGrange point. Start working on the next generation of drive, nuclear, gravity, whatever. If it turns out there is some treasure on Mars we can pick it up in time. One thing for certain, it will never be anything but a barren desert.
Yes...because Mars has a smaller mass than earth....its gravity is less....so that the escape velocity to leave mars is smaller than that of earth.
So any breathable atmosphere created would leak out into space.
I’m no scientist.. but if there is water there, there may be an energy source. That being said, a space city makes much better sense.
Not if we pulverize it.