Who will be the first colonizers of Mars?

Well, most likely, no one nation will be able to claim the entire planet of Mars for themselves.

Right now, in my strong opinion...

it really looks like the first human missions to Mars will likely be a joint SpaceX and NASA effort, probably along with hundreds of other corporations quickly getting into the game and contributing engineering and products to those first settlements.


Very excitedly, these missions are probably coming relatively soon, easily within our lifetimes!

I think we will see the first one land sometime between 2024 to 2028, approximately... give or take.


ALSO... I imagine an effort will be made by SpaceX and America to make sure the first humans on those voyages will probably be representative, in the sense that there will be people from a wide range of races and cultural groups (white, black, Asian, aboriginal, Indian, Persian, Arabic, etc...), and consist of both genders.

At least one hopes they will be representative!


The first few missions however will likely consist almost entirely of actual US citizens. So essentially the USA will just gradually claim more and more land space, as their settlement activities expand.

If other nations want to join in, they can try to convince the USA to help them establish a colony on Mars, or pick up the pace with their own space program, and do it themselves!

BUT...

If other nations are not willing to compete, and their citizens continue to think that "money should not be spent on space" or that "space is a waste of money", or the classic trap of thinking:

"We should solve Earth's problems first!"...

Then all that will happen is that nation will be forfeiting a big part of their future in space, and gradually the USA will just simply colonize an ever larger growing portion of Mars, far ahead of anyone else!


Frankly I've been a bit shocked these last few years to see Russia going down this negative path... failing to pay their space scientists and engineers a decent salary. I think the Russia of the future will deeply regret how Putin and the current Gvt is treating, handling, and funding their space agency and space scientists.

China, and India however, which are turning out to be a much wiser nations than Russia on this topic (when it comes to foresight about space exploration), seem to understand this, and are rapidly making impressive progress...

Especially India lately!


FINALLY... I also strongly believe Mars will eventually declare independence.

Viva la Republic of Mars!

Once the Martian colonies become ever increasingly self reliant (and likely have associated asteroid mining operations in the nearby asteroid belt), it would be difficult for anyone on Earth to stop them from doing so.

I for one propose that Mars' new space force in the further future should be called:

The Martian Congressional Republic Navy (MCRN).

(Sorry... that was a bit of a joke for SciFi fans!)

/r/space Thread