Hey Alex! Very interesting post, everything summed up nicely, I enjoyed it!
I have one comment, kinda about reality problem, which is the thing atmosphere.
Landing on mars is most difficult because of the very thin atmosphere, as it is blown away by Solar wind. Even "small" objects like curiosity and opportunity rovers had to have extra safety bouncers, parachutes etc.
Now imagine it with complete crew and all the mechanisation needed for settling the first colony (OK, you didn't mention colonization but, we are going in that direction), or some sort of self-constructing station. We will need some extra calculations/power to stop before the impact.
I saw Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about the ways to slow down in the thin atmosphere, even if the entrance angle is perfect, gonna search for that video around. :)
Anyway, thanks for the very nice post, and keep doing the good work!
I will be adding exactly what you said in the next article about the landings ( powered and unpowered ). I even made a mention in the end about it. I know that we are still in the process of understanding how Mars works but I think we need this experience before we can venture even further. Cheers and thanks for reading!