Calvin and Hobbes should be taught in schools as an elective at least 
They’d be good canaries, but the science for terraforming is still far, far off. Its more about finding simple ideas, researching them, and maybe in 100 years or so they can have bigger ideas. Very long-term thinking.
Additionally, whether fully habitable or just in pockets (like the base)? They’ll have roles to play in the basic ecology. Its all broad strokes, no finesse yet. Likewise, the idea I’m playing with in my head is they’re a step towards producing on base rather than importing from Earth to the tunes of billions of dollars each year. So, growing crops, animal protein (mostly from milk/whey), etc.