If future adventurers can successfully establish communities on Mars, how will they sustain themselves financially? What will be the primary export from the Red Planet? Could it be Martian deuterium, utilized for fusion fuel back on Earth? Perhaps raw materials extracted by asteroid miners based on Mars, as illustrated in the “For All Mankind” TV series? Or will future Martians rely entirely on subsidies from Earth?

In Robert Zubrin’s new book titled “The New World on Mars,” the president of the Mars Society proposes that Mars’ most valuable product will be inventions. “We’re talking about creating a new and potentially extremely inventive branch of human civilization, which will benefit humanity as a whole enormously,” he expressed in a recent episode of the Fiction Science podcast. “But moreover, we’ll play from that strength to make money.”

“We are in the process of drawing up business plans for two major initiatives — one in the artificial intelligence area and the other in the synthetic food production area,” Zubrin stated. “And the idea is, fairly soon we’re going to be presenting these business plans to investors, with the idea of starting companies devoted to these two different technological ideas that we have put together.”

Zubrin anticipates that these ventures could yield significant profits, with the potential for the AI concept to be a “billion-dollar idea.” These initiatives are designed to address critical issues for Mars that also have valuable terrestrial applications.

Income generated from these initiatives will be shared between investors and the Mars Society, contributing to the establishment of a Mars Technology Institute. Plans are already in motion to set up a headquarters for the institute, potentially in the Pacific Northwest or in Colorado, where the Mars Society is currently headquartered.

The notion of utilizing earthly ventures to support extraterrestrial undertakings is not novel. In 2015, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, mentioned that profits from the Starlink satellite internet network would be channeled towards funding a city on Mars.

Zubrin posits that the challenges of establishing settlements on Mars will drive innovation, similar to how challenges in American history led to groundbreaking inventions. He envisions Mars settlers developing nuclear fission and fusion plants, devising solutions for resource conservation, and optimizing food production amidst the planet’s harsh conditions. These innovations could then be exported back to Earth.

Zubrin’s advocacy for Mars settlement has been a constant theme in his numerous books and television appearances over the years. With the rise of SpaceX and the development of Starship, a reusable super-heavy-lift launch system, the prospect of sending humans to Mars is becoming increasingly plausible.

Zubrin’s vision for Mars settlement is optimistic, emphasizing the opportunities for creativity and innovative freedom that Mars offers. He believes that Mars settlers will be driven by the intrinsic value of creation and freedom, rather than material gains.

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For additional reading recommendations from Robert Zubrin, visit the original version of this article on Cosmic Log.

The Fiction Science podcast is co-hosted by Dominica Phetteplace, an accomplished writer based in San Francisco. To discover more about Phetteplace and her work, visit her website and explore her writing in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine.

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