As to Marsby's points, Mars has beaucoupe CO2 and subsurface water. A nuke can disassociate water gaining O2 for obvious purposes and H2 which can react with the CO2 to make methane for surface fuel or rocket fuel plus various petrochemical, plastics, etc. Combined with soil materials, there are ample resources for a technical civilization unafraid of using nukes. Maybe the French? Hey, perhaps truffles could be grown inside domes and those truffles used to feed pigs as a source of protein...and so on.
Earthlike? Hell no, but sufficiently resource plentiful to sustain a colony...unlike the volitile deficient Earth's moon.
Given the advances in robotics driven by Moores Law and military applications, I can see a colony pre-engineered by our emerging robotic bretherin as soon as the late 2030s. Uh oh, I just did one of those "In just 30 more years" things again.
Space/Science » in reply to ?
Ample Resources vs No Volitiles