I don't know who the initial customers would be, but it seems implausible that if it suddenly became possible to ship stuff to Mars no one would do it. If noth

I don't know who the initial customers would be, but it seems implausible that if it suddenly became possible to ship stuff to Mars no one would do it. If nothing else, get some automated methane production going so the ships can come back. Questionable legal status notwithstanding, it's hard to imagine anyone creating a facility on Mars and someone else coming along later and saying "you don't own that land". Then the question comes down to how much area around a facility can you plausibly claim for your exclusive use. Short of any formal legal agreements, it's basically whatever you can get away with without someone else calling your bluff and building in your exclusive area. I suppose we're more likely to see a Mars real estate land grab if multiple parties (governments, probably) are perceived to be in a race to get the best locations / mineral deposits / whatever. I could see a U.S. / China space race, for instance. That sort of scenario imagines the money spigot going from a trickle to full blast all of a sudden. Which seems kind of wasteful compared to slow and steady funding starting much earlier, but if no one's opening their wallets yet then there's not much that the people who would otherwise be building this stuff to do about it.