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"You'll be living in an armored submarine"

Some people wouldn't mind. Some might actually enjoy the lifestyle. Modern nuclear submarines are pretty cool.

My point was, you see all these images of exploration and colonization of Mars, and they usually ignore the point that realistically there will be few, if any, windows. The atmosphere and magnetic field are so weak that it's essentially a vacuum, bombarded by most of the same radiation found in space. Walking on the surface will require a pressurized suit, and your durations outside will be very short and very precise because of the safety measures.

I know it's a nice visual image, but it's not going to look like anything in Total Recall. Ever. Why not live at the bottom of the sea if the lifestyle appeals to you? It's essentially the same thing except minus the muscle atrophy and bone loss.

That's right. It looks great, all clean and neat and perfect. But after a few months, the residence modules will start to get ugly in all possible ways. The average MTV weekender wouldn't even make it through the weekend on Mars. Total boredom, and it goes downhill from there. Mars isn't for everyone, and won't be for a long time to come. At the same time, there are plenty of people who would and could do it.