I got told by people about this and the theory is that supposedly because of the distance it would be easier to colonise Mars generally. However I completely disagree, we're talking about have not just one or two people going up to space for awhile but potentially hundreds of thousands.

These are all people who are going to have to be on a planet together for ages without support from their home planet. Which is why as far as I'm concerned the only real practical option would be to pick a planet that has a proper atmosphere like our own where at the very least they can breathe without any kind of apparatus.

Think about it, imagine how ridiculous it's going to be having to send actual shipments of oxygen and water constantly back and forth between mars in order to sustain everyone there. It may be much further away to get an atmosphere with a planet but at least the colonists involved would have a much better chance of surviving especially if they had their own water supply too.

I can't understand the obsession people have with Mars, the only way we could make it at all practical to live there would be to have a truly self-sustaining colony ( currently impossible with our level of technology ) or to terraform the atmosphere so that we can breathe it.

It's an interesting problem but with our current technology there's no way in good conscience I would ever consider letting anyone go to fucking mars except on a temporary basis like with the moon landings.