Or are we going to outsource such mundane tasks like manned orbital space flight to the Russians and Chinese forever, while we are proudly preparing the colonization of Mars? /s
Solar might not be the most efficient for Mars, but he can bring tons of it without messing with nuclear politics and PR. Note also the Boring Company TBM diameter is less than the BFS. Don't be surprised if a TBM one of the first payloads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Mars_transportation_inf...
However, the reliability of the tech we have is severely lacking. To get off Mars, you are going to need a rocket. So then you need to land a rocket on Mars.
Fully fueled.
You also need a backup. We simply do not have that kind of reliability yet, and I don't think we're even close.
Fine, we'll fuel it on Mars. That means a remote robotic mining-facility and rocket-fuel-plant, in nearly no atmosphere, in cold temps, up to 16 light-minutes away (at worst, true). So it's gotta be totally autonomous. And not explode while people are in transit. And it's likely going be on a pole, so that you have easy access to fuelstuffs. Which is boring as all heck compared to Valles Marianas (not a big deal, admittedly)
If we have that tech on Mars, then the economy of Earth is going to look a LOT different. Self-driving cars aren't the half of it.
Mars, in a nutshell, is VERY Hard.
NASA can’t do everything themselves, so why not let Russia launch the rockets while the US and other countries focus on other parts of the mission?
But this isn’t really a NASA problem, this is a US government funding problem right? I can’t imagine how anyone can put people in space without the budget for it
IMO all that sandbox research they are doing now is useless, because they ain't gonna need it: they ain't gonna need it if they are not going, and they ain't gonna need it if and when they are really preparing to go because everything is gonna be different and nobody will give a shit about how such a power device might have looked like 10 years ago.
See: Boeing and SpaceX. Add 8 to 12 months. Done.
And just like that, NASA has access to superior human launch capabilities versus Russia and China. And that's before Blue Origin builds out its New Glenn monster. Russia will fall very far behind over the next five years, only China will be able to afford to keep up over time.
SpaceX already passed Russia in launches this year. That's going to get a lot worse.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Crew_Development#Fl...
Spaceflight is easy, creating a nuclear battery might be easy too, maybe even something we can outsource, but it's the one thing we definitely do not want other countries working on.