I'd expect the first rocket, or several rockets to actually stay on Mars at least for a while.
1. It means you have somewhere to live and even if you set up habitats it acts as a fallback habitat.
2. You'll need a return to Earth option if things go potato shaped.
3. It can manufacture fuel in advance for future visiting ships so acts as a backup to their Sabatier reactor and other important systems.
4. Once you have several, you can afford to risk using one to travel to other parts of Mars and back to get science from other biome... er.. I mean prospect for resources.
I wonder if these will be capable of operating automatically. It would be nice to be able to prove out the system by sending an automated cargo only mission there and back, or maybe with a skeleton crew. It's fascinating that they're aiming to go directly to this without any less ambitious manned vehicles and missions first.
> I wonder if these will be capable of operating automatically
They have said many times the F9 lands itself completely autonomously, because when it's happening on Mars the signal delay will be too great for them to do anything from Earth anyway.
Given that, I'm going to take the leap and say the whole thing will be autonomous. I also think it makes sense so you don't need trained "pilots". You can pack the thing with 100 people that have no clue.
I'm thinking about things like operation of the Sabatier reactor, refueling operations, inspection and cleaning of the engines prior to re-launch from Mars? There's an awful lot more to a round-trip mission that just automated launch and landing.
1. It means you have somewhere to live and even if you set up habitats it acts as a fallback habitat.
2. You'll need a return to Earth option if things go potato shaped.
3. It can manufacture fuel in advance for future visiting ships so acts as a backup to their Sabatier reactor and other important systems.
4. Once you have several, you can afford to risk using one to travel to other parts of Mars and back to get science from other biome... er.. I mean prospect for resources.
I wonder if these will be capable of operating automatically. It would be nice to be able to prove out the system by sending an automated cargo only mission there and back, or maybe with a skeleton crew. It's fascinating that they're aiming to go directly to this without any less ambitious manned vehicles and missions first.