a little poetic, but I've been thinking about Red Dragon's Mars payload and what might be contained within. Now, I should add that I'm a journalist, not an engineer, but I guess that gives a different perspective on what SpaceX will want to carry with them - the 'PR stunt' angle, if you like. And I think it'll be really dull. SpaceX is good at publicity stunts. Really good. They are also good at getting cargo safely from point A to point B, with a view to point B eventually being a colony on Mars. What they are not is an astrobiological research lab, nor are they funders or builders of flagship science projects. They've got just two years and a limited budget to make something out of a standard spacecraft with little or no scope for modification. A spacecraft with two exits, both of which are in the wrong place for putting things on Mars. A spacecraft which could carry living things, but won't be allowed to for PP reasons. So, the primary mission, above all else, will simply be to land on Mars. That's a hell of a mission in itself; the landing guidance alone is probably worthy of several doctorates. But that's the photo you want, above all else. The Martian surface, out of the window of a Dragon, with a SpaceX logo on it. Everything else is just a bonus. But everything else does have to work, so it has to be simple, it has to be light, and it has to have a logical reason for being there that makes the mission 'SpaceX'. The thing is, what SpaceX eventually wants is a Mars colony. And my theory is that's exactly what Red Dragon will be carrying - small technological demonstrators to prove that humans can survive on Mars using very boring, everyday tech, and to give Earth a kick up the ass to make it happen. To that end, I think there will be just two experiments. The first will be an empty pressure vessel with life support systems, just to prove that, theoretically, you and I could survive. Even just for a month or two until the media hype dies off and Red Dragon is forgotten by the masses. The second is a Sabatier reactor, open to the atmosphere via the hatch, producing just enough methane to keep a small flame burning in a chamber. If you have a flame on Mars, you can have power. And heat. And you can survive. Most of the rest of the volume will be tankage (and a few cameras), with solar panels and a camera to fold out of the docking port. That's because the trunk will be largely taken up by four small comms satellites, to be kicked into an orbit on arrival at Mars which will give at least 80% continuous coverage of Red Dragon. That's important because it means Red Dragon will be able to stream back video content of it's little flame and it's working life support system almost all the time, in almost real time. It'll be on the news, sure, but more importantly it'll be shown in classrooms around the world, that little flame. And it'll inspire young people. That's important, because they'll hold the purse strings by the time SpaceX want to start regularly flying people. And they'll remember that little flame, burning in it's little chamber next to the window looking out on Mars. And if you doubt publicity and public inspiration is that important to Elo

Except once it's landed it's not a spacecraft anymore. In fact it's not much more than the first and only garden shed on Mars!