My latest rant

Over in Space Review comments.

Why should we go to mars? Because some people want to and there is no counter argument to that.

"Not on my dime." (Assuming we take away this very powerful counter argument.)

I agree, it should and can be done privately without any tax dollars. Actually, zero govt. involvement (other than limited specific cases that we will all pay for anyway) should be the preference of all colonists. Nothing, other than hardware sent in space belongs to anybody on earth. Common heritage of mankind (Marxism) is beyond stupid. What's beyond stupid? Evil.

Wanting and being able are two very different things. We could easily bring the cost of an individual to orbit down from $20m to $2m by doing one simple thing. Send more of them at a time. A Falcon Heavy could put four dozen in orbit for about $2m each without any reusability which would bring the costs down further.

But that may not ever happen. It may be that cost forever prevent individuals to go of those that want to. Is that a show stopper? No. Not if you have a plan that provides private companies the ROI that covers both the costs and allows and incentivises them to transport colonists at no cost to the colonists. That plan should also not make slaves of the colonist. Liberty should be a given. Is there such a plan? Absolutely.

Mars One, as they themselves describe it, is a suicide plan. They depend on life support from earth not breaking down faster than they can replace it. Not a good idea. There reality show idea may cover about a third of their expected costs. But the important thing they get right is to make a plan that only depends on what private companies can produce now or in the near future. They do not depend on any miracle tech to make their plan work. The closest to miracle tech. is the Dragon 2 lander, but this is a SpaceX product and I would not bet against that happening.

Assume Musk and Zubrin are wrong and the cost never comes down below a million per person. Assume it costs $100m or more per colonist to get them to the surface of mars (which can be done by not sending them a few at a time.) Can a company make a profit sending forty colonists to mars? Which requires at least six or more landers waiting for them in mars orbit and some already on the surface with supplies.

I've calculated it could cost as little as $3b to get 42 to the surface of mars, but let's say it's $10b or $20b.

How do we provide the incentives to a private company? It's not about the cost as much as it is about the profit. "Show me the money" is all it really takes.

Unowned property becomes owned when it is claimed and defended. The good news is those governments that could make a credible claim are part of the OST and legally can not make a claim. Historically, property claims can be made by anyone, from governments to individuals and entities in between like corporations.

The way to make it legal is to be reasonable and set a precedent that others can not ignore. Once owned, property is bought and sold having a chain of title that starts with the claim. Why this is legal is that's the way it has always worked. We can not allow any government or the UN to claim people as chattel belonging to their government. Slavery, by any name, must be abolished. People must exercise their liberty by simply claiming it. Colonization gives free people an opportunity not found on earth.

So a settlement charter that specifies reasonable claims has the potential to provide all the funding required and to do it profitably at today's costs which will go down as time passes and more and more colonist take advantage.

Individual claims should provide about a million dollars to every colonist.

Company claims should provide a thousand times that [for each colonist transported.]

So if it costs the company $10b (including those darn expensive spacesuits that individuals can't afford) they will net $30b over time and faster as more colonists arrive.

Spacesuits will break down. Most martians will hang theirs up in the closet and rarely use them so extras will be available. Another reason for not sending colonists in dribs and drabs.

This is an incremental approach. It's simply a SpaceX, "go directly to orbit", rather than an Xcor, "we'll get to orbit eventually" approach. What make it incremental is keeping profit in mind all along the way.