Argon in and of itself can’t cause any problems because it’s inert. But the lack of nitrogen and the other trace gasses we’re all used to might cause some difficulty. The 500 day experiment should bring that out though.
My national pride makees me a bit jealous of the Russians in this endeavor but I still hope they’re successful. As someone else pointed out earlier, they need to fine-tune their re-entry and landing sequences first.
Another thing I’m almost certain someone else is thinking about— when the need comes to re-supply a colony up there it would be best if it was done with a drone ship controlled from earth until it got into Mars orbit and then handed off to someone on the ground there. There’s a lot of lag time between the time we flip the switch on earth and the light goes on on Mars.
Me too! Seems we need the competition or we're quite willing to sit on our hands and do nothing for forty years. I want progress in space exploration, period, and if this is what it takes, so be it, I'm sad to say.