SpaceX- all our eggs in one basket?

[MyOwnSockPuppet]

Musks answer when asked this question implied that some kind of cycler ship was a possibility. But that SpaceX had ruled it out in terms of costs. With reusable technologies and refuelling on mars the extra infrastruture worked out more costly

I think any way you look at it refuelling on Mars is going to be tricky without infrastructure, unless you've lobbed a load of fuel, oxidant and other supplies into areostationary orbit ahead of time, which'll also provide a ready-made space station in orbit to use as a staging post to land from.

Either way I think the best way to figure out the best way to do it is to wait fifty years and look in the history books.