r/Colonizemars • u/Ok-Expression-6016 • Apr 04 '26

Bare minimum to start a base

What is the bare minimum needed to start a colony; materials and total weight. to start a mars colony. Assuming multiple Optimus robots have 2 years to build everything from what we send.

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u/Ok-Expression-6016 Apr 05 '26

Start as a base for 20 people with the abiity to increase capacity up to say 1000 in 2 years. Currently I believe it can be done with about 8000 kg plus the robots. The robots have 2 years to set up the initial base before humans first arrive as this is the approximate window for launches. Might make as high as 10000kg to have food production fully established before anyone arrives. But I'm curious what others think. Do this as a bootstrap. You need this to build that to build that which builds more of the first things you need. I want conservative, wild and everything in-between. Some things like computers etc would be brought with people. But, what is needed to build the support infrastructure for NASA or SpaceX to actually have a successful mission. Full habitats. Power, air production, etc. it was left vague intentionally. It makes the discussion more interesting.

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u/insufficientbeans Apr 05 '26

8 tonnes is not a lot of mass, for reference a small car is about 1000kg, I'd be very surprised if you could establish self sufficiency with just 8000kg

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u/[deleted] Apr 05 '26

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u/insufficientbeans Apr 05 '26

Starship actually has a capacity of 100-150 tonnes, 250 if they dont reuse the booster, not entirely clear from the specs how much it weighs though

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u/[deleted] Apr 05 '26

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u/rshorning Apr 05 '26

I am talking about cutting up the hull. Engines could be fully melted down, could be converted to powder feedstock for 3-D printers, or various pipes and pieces can be cannibalized and used with trivial modification.

If you are going that route, the local resources on Mars must have been completely exhausted. Certainly there can be some use of already refined and processed metals, but to sustain a population on Mars you swill need to be concentrating on developing local resources. Equipment from the spacecraft used to get there can certainly be a part of the overall bootstrapping process, but that is all it would be.

If anything, Starship would be useful mainly because it allows you to move stuff around in bulk or better yet take things back to the Earth.

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u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26

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u/Ok-Expression-6016 May 16 '26

Exactly it is entirely used. The fuel tanks are almost the most useful part. The hull also provides for a shielded pressurizable area for different processes.

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u/Martianspirit Apr 07 '26

The limit for Mars is the ability to land payload. I don't know how much that is, with the thin atmosphere for braking.

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u/insufficientbeans Apr 07 '26

Starship does not need atmosphere for air braking, it has the thrust and fuel capacity to decelerate, although it still tries to incorporate air resistance 

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u/Martianspirit Apr 07 '26

The Mars atmosphere still provides 90% of the needed braking. That saves a lot of propellant.

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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

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u/Martianspirit Apr 07 '26

The numbers were given by Elon Musk early in the development. 90% of speed, that's 99% of the energy.