Consider the Elon Musk Mars Fantasy

Anyone pass me another beer please?
Here you go. Just stretch your hand.

Here you go.jpg
 
Hehe.
It certain showed what was possible. Heck where you think flip phones came from?

Science fiction is often a predictor of the future.

Pervasive computing, smart phones, micro form factor computers (computing cubes) and the Internet were defined by David Brin, William Gibson, Peter F. Hamilton, etc...

Gibson postulated that the transport in the Enterprise "kills" a person and then "creates a clone" of it. In one of his books (*) he brings out the individual ghosts of hundreds of Mr. Spock, Kirk, etc...

(*) I forget which... I got shelves full of books.
 
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They had absolutely no idea that there would be something in the middle between where they came from and thought they were going. It would be something like one of our descendants finding an inhabited planet somewhere between here and Alpha Centauri. According to known science, there shouldn't be one.
 
Without a magnetosphere, there will be no life beyond a good ol’ solar mass ejection.

We should not take Earth's magnetosphere for granted.

Some 42,000 years ago, during the "Laschamp Event", the Earth's magnetic field tilted on its axis and diminished to a fraction of its former strength.

During this time the Earth was left with little protection from cosmic radiation. Major damage to the ozone layer triggered major climate shifts and mass extinctions. It took around 1,300 years for the magnetic field to return to its original strength and tilt.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/ancient-relic-points-turning-point-earths-history-42000-years-ago

The story doesn't end there. The Earth’s magnetic field has weakened by around 9% in the past 170 years which could indicate an upcoming reversal.
 
Ok, Elon (and Bezos as well with his Blue Origin project) are working on ways to get 1000's of tons of stuff into orbit - as cheaply as is currently possible with chemical rockets - can we agree on this point?

(The old U.S. space contractors - ULA (Boeing, etc.) are pretty much done at this point, don't think Congress is gonna keep throwing $$$$ at ULA for the SLS or Starliner)

If you agree to that point, then what is to be done with the tons of hardware that'll be put into LEO (Low Earth Orbit)?

Go to Mars? Not likely...Although the Mars narrative keeps Elon's GenZ troops @ SpaceX fired up with an aspirational narrative...

More likely for both SpaceX and Blue Origin -- with NASA in tow -- are various plans, none of which which have much to do with colonizing Mars...

In no particular order:

-- Rare Earth minerals mining (automated / robotic to side step the shielding issue) on the Moon and Asteroids (remember the all metal asteroid "Psyche"?) -- and I acknowledge the previous poster that brought up asteroid mining!

-- Develop and deploy new weapon systems / platforms in Cislunar space - this is a goal for other nations too (CCP, EU, etc.) -- as the U.S. and EU will need to claim and enforce those claims on the Moon and mining operations on selected asteroids...

-- These new Cislunar space weapon platforms will need new tech - NTP (nuclear thermal propulsion) and energy weapons and rail guns (although nuke tipped missiles will still be en vogue) (check out "L5 Resident" on X)

-- And....sadly: SpaceX / Blue Origin - under contract with the U.S. DOD and at some point the EU's defense establishments -- the space accords to limit/ban weapon platforms in orbit around Earth will be trashed and a new generation of Nukes, rail guns, and energy weapon systems will be deployed in orbit around Earth, as the cold war "pause" from the early 90s to the mid '00s is dead - just that the CCP has taken the Soviet's place in the updated arms race -- so buckle up for the next 2 decades worth of a strategic arms race....

Sorry for the downer...

Keep dreaming about Mars colonization though to keep positive!
 
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It is totally ridiculous when given any serious informed thought. Travel through space to try to live in an air tight cave with 1/3 the gravity or less because there will never be an atmosphere and you need several feet of rock for shielding from radiation. If people want that, they can just dig an air tight cave on earth. That has to cost about 1/1000 as much per person as doing the same thing on Mars. What a miserable exitance. Not to mention the potential developmental defects from raising kids in a cave with low gravity. I guess that's the reasoning behind promoting Minecraft. Of course every rocket essentially drops a crap load of pollution on us as it leaves the planet.
 
It is totally ridiculous when given any serious informed thought. Travel through space to try to live in an air tight cave with 1/3 the gravity or less because there will never be an atmosphere and you need several feet of rock for shielding from radiation. If people want that, they can just dig an air tight cave on earth. That has to cost about 1/1000 as much per person as doing the same thing on Mars. What a miserable exitance. Not to mention the potential developmental defects from raising kids in a cave with low gravity. I guess that's the reasoning behind promoting Minecraft. Of course every rocket essentially drops a crap load of pollution on us as it leaves the planet.

Missing the point.

A nice bachelor pad in Mars... with a few babes, a good stereo with speakers than sound like Maggies but look like JBL L100 with dark orange foam grill.

An open reel to reel that looks like a Revox but sounds like a modern RME DAC.

A smoking jacket and a life supply of Viagra and Courvosier.

Shag carpeting.

Groovy baby... groovy.

Oh, and a belt driven Linn turntable... of course! I think the DD Technics won't work too well in Martian Gravity... they float too much.