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An Island Three Cylinder is 20 miles by 4 miles with about 40 square miles of living space if you exclude the window Solars which let in light to opposing valleys. On Mars this is the equivalent of a dome 3.56 miles in diameter.
Both can house 10,000,000 people with each having 111 square feet per person assuning no multi-level dwellings.
Both provide 24 hours day/night cycle.
In one colony the colonists must deal with 0.38-G while in the other, they only have to deal with it if they want to.
Lets assume the Martian dome is also 3.56 miles high.
When a Martian colonist steps outside there is a world to explore. Probably 10,000,000 people would go about various different things
When a Space colonist steps out side their is vacuum and empty space, he lives in an artificial world, but one which more closely duplicates the Earth than the Martian colony dome.
Now what activities would 10,000,000 people be doing in free space from a cylinder colony and what would 10,000,000 martians spend their time doing by comparison, and which colony would be harder to establish?
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I would vote for the rotating space habitat. It could be built closer to earth and the moon which would simplify consruction and transport, it could also be built cheaply from near earth astoroids. Plus with it could be movable with a small high isp thruster. I think the largest argument however is the optional gravity. transport from the colony to earth and vice versa involves only one steep gravity well and that only for outbound trips, were as a martian dome has a gravity well to escape in each direction. The space colony could have 1 gee which is IMO a major oversite in the mars colonization groups. This way, the inhabitants could return to earth if so desired. Zero gee would be avalible aswell for recreation and manufacturing to keep the inhaditants occupied.
Ad astra per aspera!
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