What prerequisite, based on historical transportation precedents, must be met to enable massive undertakings like Martian colonization?
Answer
Radically lowering the cost per kilogram to orbit
The approach to making colonization economically feasible relies on a principle observed in the history of transportation development: cost reduction drives market creation and massive undertakings. To move beyond science fiction and intermittent government contracts, the cost associated with launching mass to orbit must be radically reduced. This cost destruction, achieved primarily through full reusability of the Starship system, is what shifts the paradigm from government dependency to commercial viability, allowing private enterprise to economically drive the movement of cargo and people on the scale required for colonization.
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