[antasvara]

In theory, you would use Earth's resources to develop Mars to the point where it could produce resources, instead of just consuming them.

The goal is to send just enough resources that settlers can then create more of the products they need using the resources present on Mars. If you can (for example) figure out how to cultivate Mars soil to make it hospitable to Earth plants, you could turn Mars into a net exporter of food.

All of this is theoretical of course, but it's not implausible to assume that there's a "tipping point" past which inhabitants of Mars are self sufficient or can even export things to Earth.

[narrator]

How many millions of people do you need to be self sufficient for 3nm semiconductors on Mars? TSMC has 65,000 employees. ASML has 32,000 employees and 5000 suppliers. I think at some point the Mars project would reach a point where you hit a population ceiling because too much stuff that couldn't be made on Mars would have to be imported and there aren't frequent enough launch windows or cargo capacity to do it.

[monocasa]

Because of that, I think it's more likely we'll build up an micro g manufacturing base. Manufacturing without super fund sites, and you can drop the finished goods in any gravity well that wants them, earth or mars.

[narrator]

Don't you think manufacturing semiconductors in deep space adds even more complexity on top of the already ridiculous complexity of doing it on Earth or Mars?

[marcosdumay]

It looks to me that doing almost anything in deep space adds less complexity than doing it on Mars. But I agree about Earth.

[Teever]

I think a better question is how many hundreds, or thousands of people do you need to be self sufficient for 45nm semiconductors on Mars.

[mr_toad]

> How many millions of people do you need to be self sufficient for 3nm semiconductors on Mars?

At a guess, 23.19

However you don’t need the latest process node to produce most electronics. And integrated circuits are probably the last thing you’d produce off world.