Sure a research base, but we probably wont see colonies on mars for the same reasons we don't see colonies in antarctica.
1. The indomitable human spirit and drive to explore and expand
2. It's cool
3. More room for humans
There are also reasons that don't apply to Antarctica:
1. Hedging our bets against planet-ending catastrophes (global warming, giant asteroid/comet strike, ultra-pandemic)
2. Another stepping stone to exploring further interesting/important space goals, like gathering resources from the asteroid belt/moons of jupiter/etc, discovering life on Europa, and so on