There's a book called A City on Mars (www.acityonmars.com) that covers the situation very well. I think "it's absolutely never going to happen" is an overstatement; the technology is at least conceivable, so on a long enough timeline who knows. But it definitely ain't happening any time soon.

A CITY ON MARS

Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away—no climate change, no war, no Twitter—beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Critica...