>>11742647Depends on someone actually finding a profitable business model, even global groups probably couldn't do a permanent settlement solely for scientific reasons or dickswinging pride. The price and risk is too high.
Right now the main bet is Musk burning through his personal money to do it, he has the ideological determination to get there, but has come real close to going broke a few times, so it's far from guaranteed. Hopefully he can keep his shit together.
Producing fuel and mining water for solar system exploration could do ok, but hardly going to take off anytime soon, it's a bit of chicken and egg problem.
Other alternative could be selling Mars land off to fund it which would be highly controversial but could really pay for initial settlement multiple times over. There's 150 million square km of land, selling half of that for US$20000/sqkm would raise half a trillion dollars. That's a paltry $200 a hectare for extraterrestrial land and mining rights.
>>11742298Looks fine to me, has good info, wouldn't stress too much.
