Okay, we are getting a little off focus here. If there was a reliable source of reaction mass, oxygen, food and water in Mars orbit incoming ships from Earth could re-provision themselves there for the return trip and reserve more room for cargo and passengers. Note that without a CO2 atmosphere there would be no methane production so that capacity on the moons would be dedicated to processing ice. A big import from Earth would probably be certain organic compounds to promote food production.
Quote:
Mars Needs . . .
Um . . .
The oxidant chemicals in the Martian soil aren’t very good for growing plants. To make the Martian surface material more fertile, humans have to combine it with water and carbon-rich compounds. The water will come from rain or irrigation, but the carbon is a bit more tricky. One excellent source of carbon is human waste. Mixing waste products with Martian soil solves two problems at once: the toxic soil kills bacteria and sterilizes the waste, while the carbon, water, and nitrogen compounds in the wastes make the barren red soil into something plants can use. Assuming a mix of three parts Martian soil to one part waste, a human can “terraform” about one square foot of Mars per day. Even with several million inhabitants, sewage disposal on Mars won’t be a problem for millennia!
GURPS Mars, page 75
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Even hydroponics needs something to work with. So do humans, making food from Earth another big import item (at least initially). At least everyone (no matter how useless) would have
something to contribute. ;D
Dalton “another political comment avoided” Spence