We all know there's no profit in it and its going to cost a lot of money. According to experts, the best "business case" for going to Mars would essentially be the technology we develop and discover throughout the process leading to things like LASIK surgery, heart pumps, and water filters.
But what are some other actual potential business cases? Perhaps there's some value in the high perchlorate content in the soil/dust or mining the large variety of minerals that are on Mars? Interesting talk this week at Mars Society that re-envisions the whole Mars idea in a more humane and positive light.
What could be some actual plausible business cases for going to Mars?
byu/upyoars inFuturology
30 Comments
Mars has untapped mineral deposits AND extremely valuable permafrost.
By placing an orbital space station with simulated gravity through rotation, and walled automated facilities on the surface + underground, the Mars station/orbital colony could be an important hub for resupply and repair of vehicles in the future as well as an economic pillar for the solar system going forward.
Probably none.
Tourism, when you have proved it to be reasonably safe. Though I am not sure many are interested, given that it takes 9 months to 13-14 months in each direction. Not sure if that includes a stop at McDonalds.
Red Beer
Grown, Brewed, and Bottled — by Robots on Mars
, Product of Mars. ABV 7%
Any profit can only come once infrastructure can be built and maintained.
Once they find that 4 trilion dollar gold deposit on Mars , suddenly we’ll have ships that an reach marks in 3 months and full space colonies there
A terraformed Planet B as a DR backup – but we might not really need that contingency for 3-4 billion years in the suns red giant phase
The purpose would be to secure and eventually extract resources.
The program to reach the Moon accelerated our technological development by a conservative 30 to 40 years.
The tech developed has given us our modern world. Tang and the pen that writes upside down have in the intervening decades become punchlines, but the Apollo program alone generated thousands of patents. Or did you think that industry couldn’t find a use for materials that are resistant to massive temperature differentials and pressures? Or turbo pumps that can move an obscene amount of liquid safely in a very short amount of time?
Just imagine what going to a completely new planet will do for us.
The arguments against.
It’s too expensive. Doing nothing will cost infinitely more.
It will kill people. Show me a worthwhile human endeavour that hasn’t counted its costs in human life. Most of the bridges we’ve built have ended people’s lives.
It’s too difficult. Damn right, it’s difficult. Let’s do it anyway.
But the best argument for going back to the Moon or finally going to Mars is purely selfish on the species level. These places will eventually house a more than sufficient human breeding population but will almost certainly house repositories of knowledge, seeds of every plant, and the genes of every creature that walks crawls or slithers on the Earth.
Asteroid mining will probably be much more profitable than Mars mining because you won’t need to get the resources back up a big gravity well, and there are many more asteroids in the system even if most of them are far away. Outside of scientific research and *maybe* space tourism I really can’t think of a reason to send people to Mars that couldn’t be better done with asteroids or like a larger and more permanent space station.
Mars gravity is too low for human long term health. So there is no commercial value to going there. Certainly there is tons of scientific interest but business? No way.
What we might want is space based habitats in orbit around Mars. Artificial gravity can maintain long term health and having shelters on Mars’ moons in case of severe solar ‘weather’ is similar to storm cellars in Tornado Alley.
Easier access to the Asteroid Belt for resource extraction and space based manufacturing would be the business case for those orbital habs.
Why do people insist there has to be a clear business case, when so many other activities on earth are done simply because we as humans want to? Look at how ‘the arts’ are subsidized in most developed countries, because we believe it is good and right to support them.
However, beyond the technological advances that might accrue, can I suggest the one that most of you have missed – monetising the coverage. The first colony on Mars is going to be a huge media event and the broadcast rights will be worth a lot. People will be following this 24/7.
There’s not. The moon has actual valuable minerals and is far closer to us. The only true reason to go to Mars is to start a human colony.Â
But once you do a little research on how radioactive Mars is you quickly realize a colony would be extremely difficult
When Columbus discovered America, he did not know that the result will be USA with trillions in profits. If we settle on Mars, we can have USA 2.0 as a result.
If USA settles on Mars, it will be the only country with tech and experience to do so. Same way Taiwan is the best at chip manufacturing, USA will be the best at space exploration.
The only use case is proliferation of humans on another celestial body, making sure we have a backup plan of earth destruction. We dont need monetary incentive going forward, we could fix all earths issues if we made sure to work collaboratively and efficiently. But were not, we elect morons and chase virtual currencies instead.
Mars is a distant target that can be inhabited by humans and is within reach.
If you have a goal, you have a reason to develop, research and innovate.
And this whole process creates a whole industry around it.
Taking care and redistributing the belongings of people going there.
I think the problem is that you are thinking too short-term.
Think about the next 1000 years, not the next 50.
there is nothing that could be done on mars that would enrich earth. best case is that people on mars manage to build a society that has as little dependence on earth as possible.
Going to Mars could be seen as somewhat like investment in a nuclear deterrent.
Aside from payments to contractors involved, Business benefits generally from the peace which (in theory) comes from a nuclear deterrent.
Likewise, business benefits generally from tech advancements that would help prevent e.g. Meteors, that could cause major or extinction level damage or off-world storage of seeds etc
Technology.
Space science leads to breakthroughs. It would be a very large and long term investment though.
We could send Elon on a one way trip. Totally worth the cost.
There’s currently none. Musk talks about humanity needing to survive in the event of a planetary disaster which makes Earth unliveable for any amount of time but really any Mars expedition would be dependent on supplies from Earth for a long time so it’s not really viable.
The only real business case is the potential opportunities which might be found along the way. Anything we collect on Mars isn’t coming back for a long time as well so it’s not like we can plan to mine either
Dumping all the tech neo-feudalists and Christian Dominionists off there would be useful
It’s not really a “business case” but people will want to live there so there will be business done there.Â
Mars comparative advantage is exporting digital goods because shipping costs are so high.
There will be plenty of business opportunity on Mars itself for any high mass goods that can be made there, like food and building supplies.
While low mass goods will be imported, which is itself a business opportunityÂ
Basically anywhere people live there will be business opportunities
Yup the tech advancement would be the primary benefit. There’s really no good reason I’m aware of to send humans to Mars at this juncture.
There is no profit in going to mars. Not in a business or financial sense. It’s like climbing Mt Everest, but for all of humanity. No one NEEDS to go there. They just want to, if only to find out if they can. The resources spent in both currency and materials doesn’t need to make a profit. That’s just rich people thinking that if they work something just the right way they can have their cake and eat it too. The rest of us understand that sometimes you just have to pay for something so that you can have it. Imagine if everything we ever purchased was expected to turn a profit. Business types have us discussing the idea of ‘investing’ in a Mars mission thereby implying the idea of some kind of return on their investment. Because they don’t like the idea of simply ‘paying’ for a Mars mission.
If any of us ever get around to paying for a mission to Mars you can guarantee that a lot of people will make a profit off of the adventure. But we all won’t necessarily get our money back. There isn’t anything wrong with that idea. It doesn’t have to be approached as some kind of investment opportunity. It can totally be achieved by the simple principle that we WANT to send people to Mars to check it out. I, for one, would not profit off of a Mars mission so I couldn’t care less whether anyone else does or not. I think that likely goes for most of us. If we can do it, then let’s do it. Don’t spend my tax dollars like shit and allow a bunch of corruption and greed to ruin it and get it done. If sending people to Mars requires a profit in order to happen it will never happen.
A giant rest stop on the way to mining the astroid belt.
AI compute datacenter.
You’d need to send the chips there, and configure and power the thing. Mars has sunlight for electricity, and its very cold so you don’t have a problem with cooling. You could run the AI compute there and download the result.
Its the only thing I can think of that makes even the slightest bit of sense.
There are none. The reason we should go to Mars is because it is cool
The absolute horror of what human trafficking will become. Like Shanghai-ing sailors, people will be abducted, put on a ship, and sent to work and die on mars. Everyone who goes to mars is going to die there. Only the extremely wealthy will be able to go and return, and even then, because of what ever lunatic trillionaire rules mars can decide if you can leave.
Human settlement of Mars will begin as a prison labor camp.