Not sure what Lincoln hand in mind regarding market forces, but one reason the cost to sustain the colony over time should shrink is just tech improvement. Operating the colony (at a given standard of living) should get cheaper over time.
Unless there’s a discontinuity (i.e. something like a space elevator resulting in more than one order of magnitude reduction in cost per ton to orbit) I suspect it would still be impossible to sustain a Martian colony for a nontrivial number of people. The physics and chemistry of conventional rockets just won’t allow it.
Not sure what Lincoln hand in mind regarding market forces, but one reason the cost to sustain the colony over time should shrink is just tech improvement. Operating the colony (at a given standard of living) should get cheaper over time.
Unless there’s a discontinuity (i.e. something like a space elevator resulting in more than one order of magnitude reduction in cost per ton to orbit) I suspect it would still be impossible to sustain a Martian colony for a nontrivial number of people. The physics and chemistry of conventional rockets just won’t allow it.