For humans to live on Mars, the necessary system for obtaining air, water, and food would need to be a closed system; energy is exchanged with the surroundings and not lost.
In a closed system, matter is not exchanged with the surroundings, which means that resources like air and water would be recycled. For example, carbon dioxide exhaled by humans can be converted back into oxygen via plants or other systems. Energy would need to be imported (e.g., from solar panels) to support life functions, but the matter itself (for air, water, and possibly food) should be largely self-sustaining through recycling, making it closed in terms of matter.
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