That forwarded e-mail response is not in my mail.com trashcan any longer - it periodically purges without warning. Just a case of bad timing.

Basically, Elon said he didn't support LEO habitats, lunar outposts etc, as he wants humanity to become a "multi-planetary" species. He's not thinking laterally. He doesn't realize it's really only important mankind has at least a foothold in space somewhere, rather than making footprints on Mars, from a survival point of view (eg extinction threat from runaway nanotechnology, "global killer" asteroid impacts). E-mail him yourself if you like.

At least he's thinking of funding a few smallscale space ventures himself eg that TransLife MouseMobile. But he seems suckered into the "Only NASA can/should/will do it" mentality that plagues most thinking outside (and sometimes inside) the space advocacy community with regard to larger space projects.