SpaceX BFR to Mars...and then?

I’m still a bit hyped from last night’s phenomenal Falcon Heavy launch. So today I couldn’t help thinking about SpaceX and their plans a bit and started wondering:

Elon Musk’s idea for Mars colonization is that SpaceX provides transport to the red planet using its BFR and the ITS, leaving everything else to other companies. And since we’re talking about “Mars colonization” here, “everything” is a hell of a lot of things…housing, telecommunications, energy, waste disposal, water and food supply, even super basic things like providing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide from the air.

My question: Are there any companies out there that are seriously working on a business model that relies on the ITS? I’m not talking about fancy mock-ups or renderings for architecture competitions…real start-ups in the spirit of SpaceX itself that want to solve one particular problem of Mars colonization and are building a business case around it.

Because the way I see it, SpaceX have their hands more than full developing the BFR and ITS, so they couldn’t develop a Mars base or just an initial self-contained module even if they wanted to. So assuming they actually manage to stick to their ambitions timeline, what are they going to send to Mars if no one has built something?

This is the stuff I worry about on a day like this :smiley:

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Good question! I’ve not heard of any company that has aspirations to actually set up some infrastructure on Mars besides SpaceX themselves.

If I am not mistaken SpaceX’s plan is to setup a small habitat for a dozen people or so to get the fuel plant running, right?

There are rather sophisticated plans for a basis on the moon in the pipeline at NASA and ESA and other partners. If spaceX stays on schedule, the moon basis will be too late to transfer the experience gained towards a base on Mars. I hope they have something in mind. Would be a shame if the BFR is loaded and ready and we forgot to develop the payload. :smiley:

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