Elon Musk will never be King of Mars.
Curious Cosmonaut does some legal research so you don't have to.
Many joke that SpaceX’s Mars colonization dream is actually a giant scheme for Elon Musk to control an entire planet. To set himself up as the ‘king’ of Mars and establish a new society exactly as he sees fit.
Whether or not this is true is moot: it will never happen. Here’s why.
The legal department at the Curious Cosmonaut was digging into the regulations covering SpaceX launches. It turns out that whenever SpaceX (or any U.S.-based company) launches the U.S. government has to approve the purpose of each operation. Specifically: the government has to confirm that every “launch or reentry would not jeopardize public health and safety, safety of property, U.S. national security or foreign policy interests, or international obligations of the United States.1”
It is extremely unlikely that the U.S. government would allow SpaceX to launch a mission that has the explicit goal of declaring independence from Earth. In other words, the weird libertarian fantasy of establishing Mars as a competitor to Earth (and thus, the United States) will be squashed before it even gets off the ground, as long as SpaceX launches are subject to U.S. government oversight.
The U.S. government would never allow SpaceX to launch the weird libertarian fantasy of setting up an independent Mars.
This begs the question: can SpaceX launch without U.S. government oversight? According to the Curious Cosmonaut’s legal experts the answer is no. As long as SpaceX remains a U.S. company, it is subject to U.S. oversight no matter where it launches anywhere in the world, according to Title 51 of the U.S. Code2. For example, SpaceX can’t use it’s converted oil rigs to launch from international waters as a way to circumvent U.S. regulations in order to set up the United Muskian States of Mars.
What does this mean? A future Martian colony established by SpaceX will still be subject to the laws and regulations of the United States, at least for the foreseeable future. And is this really so bad, compared to some of the alternatives?
14 CFR 450.43 (a)(2)
Title 51, Chapter 509