Re: physics watson
>>The destructive properties of the atmosphere rely very much on its density AND speed. A 400MPH gust in an atmosphere much less dense than earths will do very little damage, for instance the mars rovers didn't, strangely enough, look like earthside storm chaser vehicles;
And that's exactly the kind of thinking we need to avoid, yes 400mph gusts of thin atmoshpere won't do as much as a thick atmosphere (although, a large tent will suffer more than a small tent, and they are proposing a large tent), but once you start getting dust in that it changes the situation completely, it takes far less energy to pick up dust in a thin atmosphere and dust storms will require the same maths as standard fluid dynamics, the rover being a small chunk of metal will act more like a rock than a tent; the atmosphere can easily go round a rover.
Put a small pebble into a river and once it hits the bottom it's unlikely to move, put a larger, lighter, less dense object in and it's more likely to move, remember that the force applied will be directly proportional to the area exposed.
>>The habitat has to be light enough to be transported and strong enough to protect against minor dangers
You're not getting the point, if people were in a tent on Mars, there are no MINOR dangers, it's not like a camping tent, oooh... slight rip, might get a bit damp, it's oooh.... slight rip, might get dead.
Look, it's simple, the real problems of getting to Mars involve getting to Mars, a biosphere able to support people for the journey of months with little or no maintenance requirement, we really are not anywhere near there yet, but what we can do is design and build sturdy habitats well in advance, we could design and build heavy lift craft, send unmanned lifeboats, automated assembly, self sustaining recycling units, maybe even grow plants or fungi based food, get it all ready, maybe, just maybe a light habitat as an emergency shelter if the final manned landing is too far from the industrial units.
In addition, there's a lot of fuel and spacecraft needed to leave Mars (I assume it's not going to be one-way), logically you should prep this in advance too, unlike the moon lift off the gravity will be much harder to escape from (and landings are much harder), again this needs to focus on getting large amounts of "stuff" to Mars.
Sorry, I know you want this to be a good idea, but it really is insignificant and your enthusiasm for it won't make it any better. Is this research pointless? well, it solves no issues and creates new ones, i.e. there is no reason to cut down on weight (as there's plenty of time to get it ready, decades in fact).