Mars colony easier than Moon colony

With a small energy boost to coast to Mars instead of the moon, we will be in a friendlier place to start a colony.  There's atmosphere to burn up some micrometeorites before they hit, water ice just below the surface in many places (drink water and extract oxygen to breathe), even the dust is smoother and less damaging to machinery.  There's material to make water-based cement with and with the help of the thin atmosphere, it will cure before the water boils away as would happen on the Moon.  I'm in!
  "Brandon is currently conducting a research project studying the curing properties of Sorel cement concrete in a simulated Martian environment."