Syfy’s new show “The Expanse,” based on author James S.A. Corey’s eponymous series, aptly cuts through the stereotypical sci-fi red tape of setting introductions in the first episode. In its Star Wars-esque opening crawl, the text “Mars is an independent military power” condenses years of history into a single sentence.

Among all the questions this raises, the ultimate question is this: what would it actually take for a Martian colony to rise to military, planetary nation-statehood?

Author Kim Stanley Robinson most prominently explored this question in his “Red Mars” trilogy. Literary criticism aside, his series delves more deeply into the political side of this answer than any other major literary series. But as an engineer, the foggy future of politics is about as attractive as engineering is to politicians.

But what counts as an answer to this question? Finding an answer to a such a broad question is easier with some specific criteria. Luckily, “The Expanse” already gave us a juicy option: The MCRN Donnager.

Our criteria: Mars is capable of independently building a ship like the MCRN Donnager.

This does come with one assumption: Martian military strength is the deciding factor in its independence a la “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” Considering the U.N.’s willingness to use harsh tactics against its rivals, discounting a diplomatic breakup between Earth and Mars is at least possible.

Building the MCRN Donnager, in a nutshell, comes down to a manageable list of systems already featured in the show. Modern astronautical and aerospace college classes usually cover these topics (with the exception of weapons):

propulsion/ attitude control: fusion, monopropellant

energy production: fusion

thermal control: heat sinks

atmospheric control: O2 production, CO2 treatment

remote sensing: EM spectrum, 3D scanning

communications: ship-ship and interplanetary

weapons: computer-controlled miniguns, rail guns, nuclear torpedos

stealth: meta-materials

Yes, fusion. And for now, any notion of artificially generated gravity is the only deliberate omission. However, each of these systems requires the following:

a specialized workforce of researchers, designers, and builders

significant access to natural resources

high industrial/ manufacturing capacity

And since this is Mars, of course some additional inputs that are usually ignored on Earth come to mind:

food and water for all of these workers (Martian agriculture)

… and living space (well-developed habitats and large construction capability)

…and air

Bringing numbers into the argument (how many workers or asteroids, how much time or money, etc.) is for another day.