> I think SpaceX itself has said that it can't/won't be funding the Mars launches. What they said was they couldn't be funding the whole Mar endeavor. They ce

> I think SpaceX itself has said that it can't/won't be funding the Mars launches. What they said was they couldn't be funding the whole Mar endeavor. They certainly can and plan to fund Mars launches. They stated their aspirational goal of sending the first unmanned spaceship to Mar in 2022, followed 2 years later with a manned one. They have seemed to pivot a bit to Moon, so I'm not so sure what their current plan is, but a trip to Mar isn't out of their reach financially.