After much research into each avenue, the following conclusions were reached. United States government funding was the most likely source for the vast majority of the funding that is necessary for such a large project. The United States currently has the necessary funds available to implement a project of this scale, as the Apollo program demonstrated. Studying the budget for the Apollo program and comparing the percentages that it took of the budget of NASA in the 1960's to the present budget of NASA gave the group an idea of the amount of money that the US government would be willing to spend if it were properly motivated. The political maneuvering that this would require is a project in itself, which is explored in the public relations section.
Many overseas governments have space programs and an interest in finding out more about Mars.
The research has shown, however, that alone, most other governments do not have the funding for such a project and may not be willing to fund a U.S.- initiated project. While international collaboration between governments are politically very attractive, sources indicate that they are often inefficient and tend not to work as well as single-government ventures. This is unfortunate because such an expensive undertaking would be more palatable to the U.S. Congress if the U.S. were only expected to pay for a portion of it, but realistically a collaboration is not workable. Private funding is going to pay a larger and larger role in space exploration in the future, especially if useful resources are found on other planets such as Mars. However, this is a projection into the future.