> the people interested in exploring and settling Mars are private citizens
which is what I argued against.
Also I'm pretty sure the national space agencies would like "colony of 1M people on Mars with solar power" too, and looking at the progress made they seem closer.
AFAIK no private company or individual has ever sent anything to mars while national space agencies have launched or tried to launch 147 missions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_Mars