"is it lucrative enough". Isn't that the question of the ages. It could be if done correctly. Thinking about housing, if a company develops the perfect housing for Mars, modular, lightweight, cheap, recyclable, they don't need to wait until the full project is complete to make money. Maybe they just developed the perfect window, patent it and get selling. Now they are making money to find the rest of the development. Obviously it's not that simple and getting the ball rolling on this mindset is the real issue. But every small innovation along the way could be applied and sold domestically.

We've lost our collective purpose along the way, it's all me me me, our country vs yours. Keep your individually but we're one species on one planet. Let's act like it and do great things.