It is likely complete fantasy, and I have to wonder whether they believe it themselves. Anyway, I do not want humans anywhere near Mars until we are certain that there is no indigenous life there.
An interesting simulation they could do is this: see if they can set up an "Earth-independent" colony somewhere on Earth. Like, for example, Antarctica or the middle of the Sahara. I doubt whether that can be done with their current knowledge and technology. But they want to try it on Mars?
Not to mention the cost, which will be prohibitive, and divert even more funding away from unmanned exploration. We already have a damn white space elephant in earth orbit; we don't need another on Mars.
