I believe that is a factor, who wouldn’t want to rule their own little kingdom? And nobody wants that more than a jerk that thinks they are better than everyone

But really I think it’s gold rush style greed. Whoever gets a settlement on Mars will want to make it a truck stop to help anyone trying to explore deeper reaches of space and make ridiculous money for a long, long time

If you can assemble and launch rockets on mars instead of Earth you can do waaay more because you’re only fighting 1/3 of gravity for each launch so you get more fuel/cargo/range