/sci/ - Science & Math

Here's the deal, OP - Elon Musk really wants humanity to set up permanently on Mars. Not just dinky science stations of maybe a few hundred people, but literally at least a million people, enough to get all the industries needed to lead to a self-sufficient Mars, though this will take decades.

Now on the face of it this plan sounds absurdly grandiose, but digging into it Ol'Musky actually has a decent shot of pulling it off. He is the majority stakeholder in SpaceX, which is set to make silly amounts of money with Starlink - $10 billion in profit a year would be on the low end of estimates. Now, if Starship gets anywhere near its estimated flight cost (and I see no reason why it wouldn't), that will be more than enough to launch thousands (and later, tens of thousands) of settlers & equipment every synod, with plenty left over for r&d work on the necessary equipment. Musk also has been setting up other companies that have obvious colonization applications, like Tesla for electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels, and the Boring company for tunnel digging stuff. Now, this plan also needs lots of people willing to settle Mars, but finding a million people willing to say fuck this gay Earth over the course of decades should be doable.

TLDR; Eccentric billionaire wants Mars colony, has set up companies to accomplish this goal. That by itself is enough economic reason to get it going.

>>11289937
There is a reason why the future leaders of Mars will be called the "Elon".

>>10749322
Other way around - we will call the future leaders of Mars "The Elon".