Anybody will be able to go to mars for free and arrive wealthy.
What!? Impossible! How? [I can see you scowling!]
Before discussing how, would you agree that free travel and wealth are incentives? For colonization to result in industry that provides a modern life from the resources on mars they will need lots of people. Making people pay more than most can afford (by a very large margin) to risk their lives just isn't going to work. Also this can't be done by stealing from the taxpayers so a few government employees can plant a flag (and who wants to wait another few decades to see that?)
The key to how, is to make it profitable for private companies, by tying their reward to the risk of delivering colonists alive and supplied to the martian surface. So our first number:
All colonists agree to claim (by possession) exactly one square kilometer and no more from a registry of claims in an orderly manner and defend the claims made in this way by all colonists that agree to these terms. Each claim is separated by a perimeter road. All plots sold within a claim must have access to this perimeter road meaning a claim will have at least 85% (assuming half acre plots) up to 100% of it's area available for resale depending on how it's subdivided.
Why 1 sq. km. rather than more or less? They can always buy more from other colonists or the transportation company if they want. Why not less? Because this gives them about 500 half acre plots they can sell over their lifetimes to insure a certain level of financial security. Keep in mind that undeveloped land on mars will start with almost no value (but not zero since it is now possessed.) To give it value they would develop plots ready for habitation so that new colonists will have a home the day they arrive rather than taking the months necessary to build it themselves (which is still their option.) Restricting the amount of land in circulation by agreement to a settlement charter keeps the bottom from dropping out on it's value. Others could ignore this arrangement, but then they are on their own in legally defending their choices. This is also not saying that each colonist would be separated a kilometer apart. They will trade plots to be closer together and land value is still dependent on location, location, location. All decisions are of course freely made by the individuals that completely own their own property. There are no guarantees nor should there be regarding value. This is liberty. Stay on earth if it sounds like a bad choice.
So where is the incentive for a company to transport a colonist? The terms of the charter are that they get 1000 claims for each person they transport tied to the one individual claim of that person. Those company claims can only be made with reference to those individuals claims. So if they transport a dozen colonists they can claim 12,000 sq. km. They could make these claims at a rate depending on how fast they were added to the registry (which includes surveying and marking with colonists taking priority.) If it costs $50m per colonist to transport them then the company could make a profit selling plots for as little as $100 a half acre. Not even that if you can transport the colonists for less which will happen over time as more go per trip and the technology matures. Once on mars these companies will have other ways to make money and available labor (not slaves, but potential employees) to do so. If they find other ways to finance the trip (such as a reality show that ties in well with marketing their real estate or leasing space on their transport ship in orbit while it is accumulating the fuel for the required delta V for the voyage) then the money from real estate is just gravy. Selling plots is entirely dependent on how well the transportation company markets them. It's no different than any other risk vs. reward decision. The main point being that given a settlement charter where all agree to it's terms provides a legal foundation to support value.
The terms of transport are that the transport company assumes all costs to bring a person alive to the martian surface including supplies en-route and space suit which becomes the property of the colonist. They will transport one metric ton to the surface (minus the mass of the colonist in space suit) for each colonist. The colonist is responsible to choose and buy the supplies they will be taking to the surface but the transportation company will not charge them for delivery within a range where the owner can recover them (or travel with them but it is expected the amount of supplies that can travel with the colonists to the surface may be limited. Using a four person Mars One lander for example each person could only take along about 300 kg. of personal supplies. The other 500 to 600 kg. or so would have to arrive on a separate lander.) 300 kg. could be up to a 90 day supply of life support depending on what is chosen. Obviously the first group of pioneers should have at least a 26 month supply waiting for them on the surface (more is definitely better.) This is expected to be within 10 km of their landing site (given historical accuracy) but even 50 km or more away should not cause a survival issue. Each lander will have a low mass rechargeable tractor to pull a unfoldable trailer they could travel on with their supplies.
8 kg. per day of consumables (including packaging) keeps our colonists alive and half of that is water. One kg. of water per day will keep a person alive and you can just about get that from non-dehydrated food (they will have a combination of both.) It should not take more than a few hours to get to their prepared base from their landing site but they will have consumables with them to live for weeks or months. They will also have solar power to produce more water and oxygen (although it will take several hours to deploy.) Colonists that follow will be able to trade with those already in colonies.
Who do they sell plots to? The people on earth with the money (or among themselves but that's a limited supply of money.) Title is recorded on mars and independent of any legal authority on earth (which doesn't prevent earth from trying to be relevant but should be easily ignored. Especially those whining U.N. lawyers that would really like to control your life even when they can't control themselves.) People will engage in trade if it's handled properly (they already buy worthless martian deeds from con men for $20 that have no trade value at all.) Again, real estate trade is just one potential for financing. People are free to attempt others.
Is $50m per colonist in the ballpark? Check out the 'Technology and costs' page and see for yourself. Note that as transportation costs come down over time the price per acre to break even comes down as well. $50m is where I see it could easily go soon. However, the first mission is likely to be over $100m per colonist but absolutely doesn't need to be much higher than that. I have an 8 person mission using a Sundancer that costs about $150m per person ($1.2b total.) By sending more at a time (my recommendation is one dozen the first mission and three dozen the next launch window) it should be possible to reduce that the same way I describe price to LEO reduced from $20m to $2m on the technology page.
To survive, especially 26 months out, a colony needs at least several dozen people for the required skills. More is better. First priority is a chemist and not just one. Second is a machinist. Again not just one. Doctor is very low on the list but EMT training would be useful and all should have at least some. Scientist can wait because they can do their science after someone has a house to rent them. Scientists will have to be content emailing the owner of a habitat construction company on mars for data. This would still be light years ahead of getting their science from rovers.
Seeds were designed for space travel so it might be useful to have some farming experience. Food sold in the mars farmers market is likely to be one of the best experiences on mars.
A common misconception is that governments must grant land. This is completely false. They can't own any land to grant if they hold to the outer space treaty. They must own it to grant it. However, nothing prevents them from recognizing the ownership claims of others. Chain of title is one of the ways of legally establishing ownership. All land must first be claimed before a chain of title can begin. The settlement charter establishes a reasonable defined initial claim which is strongly established by having many members agree to it's terms. As long as martians recognize martian property titles it really doesn't matter what lawyers on earth have to say about it. They will be a marketable and tradable asset whose value goes up over time.
To survive, especially 26 months out, a colony needs at least several dozen people for the required skills. More is better. First priority is a chemist and not just one. Second is a machinist. Again not just one. Doctor is very low on the list but EMT training would be useful and all should have at least some. Scientist can wait because they can do their science after someone has a house to rent them. Scientists will have to be content emailing the owner of a habitat construction company on mars for data. This would still be light years ahead of getting their science from rovers.
Seeds were designed for space travel so it might be useful to have some farming experience. Food sold in the mars farmers market is likely to be one of the best experiences on mars.
A common misconception is that governments must grant land. This is completely false. They can't own any land to grant if they hold to the outer space treaty. They must own it to grant it. However, nothing prevents them from recognizing the ownership claims of others. Chain of title is one of the ways of legally establishing ownership. All land must first be claimed before a chain of title can begin. The settlement charter establishes a reasonable defined initial claim which is strongly established by having many members agree to it's terms. As long as martians recognize martian property titles it really doesn't matter what lawyers on earth have to say about it. They will be a marketable and tradable asset whose value goes up over time.
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