Can Starlink satellite internet pay for the construction of a colony on Mars?
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2025 6:41 am
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is planning to establish a colony on Mars. He intends to use Starlink revenue to finance the project. The entrepreneur may well realize his dream in his lifetime, but there are nuances.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his company has received more than 500,000 applications for Starlink. Back in May 2019, the network had just 60 satellites, but now their number has exceeded 1,000. If the Starlink customer base grows, Elon Musk will be able to finance his most ambitious and potentially most expensive dream: a city on Mars.
What is Starlink?
Satellite internet provides online access to anyone within satellite coverage. It is independent of terrestrial infrastructure and is well suited for rural and underserved areas. However, historically, this technology has been inferior to traditional connectivity for several important reasons.
Typically, satellite internet has high latency, meaning it takes a long time to get a response from a server. In such conditions, performing tasks that depend on a response, such as communicating on Zoom, is very difficult and practically impossible. To reduce latency, Starlink places satellites at a much lower altitude, about 550 km above sea level, and there are many more of them than a typical provider. The company has applied for permission to launch up to 42 thousand satellites.
The beta phase of the project started in late 2020. Users in the US pay a one-time fee of $499 (excluding tax and shipping) for a Starlink dish and router kit. After that, the monthly subscription fee is $99 per month.
Currently, users are offered speeds of about 150 megabits per second, but SpaceX plans to reach 10 gigabits per second.
What does Starlink have to do with a city on Mars?
Musk had originally intended to fund the construction with Starlink. In 2015, when Musk announced the launch of the Starlink project, he said that it was needed “to generate revenue to pay for a city on Mars.”
As previously reported, Musk wants to use SpaceX's rocket to send people and cargo to Mars as soon as possible. His goal is to create a self-sufficient city by 2050.
In October 2019, Musk said that the cost of a city on Mars would be between $100 billion and $10 trillion. The estimate is based on the following assumptions.
1 million tons of cargo will be needed to create a self-sufficient city.
It costs $100,000 to send a ton of cargo to Mars on Starship.
So, over 30 years, Musk will need at least $100 billion over 30 years. That's about $3.33 billion per year. And that's what Starlink is for.
How SpaceX will pay for Mars
According to internal SpaceX projections from 2017, published by The Wall Street Journal, it is assumed that Starlink will fully finance the construction of the colony.
In 2017 alone, the commercial launch market earned about $4.5 billion. Accordingly, SpaceX's revenues are not enough to expand to other planets. At the same time, as Musk told reporters in May 2019, the global market for Internet providers is worth about $1 trillion.
At the same time, the entrepreneur believes that Starlink can jamaica number data claim 3-5% of this amount. This means that Starlink can bring in about $50 billion per year.
This is in line with SpaceX’s optimistic 2017 projections. At the time, the company predicted that by 2025 its revenue would exceed $35 billion per year, with Starlink accounting for about $30 billion. Moreover, it could reach operating income of more than $20 billion in the same year—that’s revenue minus recurring expenses.
If every person who applied for Starlink actually completes their order, SpaceX will receive $99 per month from half a million people — in other words, $49.9 million. That’s the same as $594 million per year before expenses.
It will take about 2.5 million Starlink subscriptions to provide the required minimum of $3.3 billion per year.
This is before operating costs, which in practice means that SpaceX will need more subscribers to cover Starlink's ongoing costs.
That’s not small. In April 2020, rival HughesNet announced that it had become the first satellite internet provider to reach 1 million subscribers. SpaceX will have to outbid HughesNet and several others. It will also have to maintain them and get paid for 30 years.
Perhaps dissatisfied HughesNet users will switch to SpaceX. Or Starlink will attract its own subscribers. From a net operating income perspective, the goal looks achievable. If the company’s projections hold true, and SpaceX does indeed generate $20 billion in operating income by 2025, it could reach the lower end of the required amount in just five years.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his company has received more than 500,000 applications for Starlink. Back in May 2019, the network had just 60 satellites, but now their number has exceeded 1,000. If the Starlink customer base grows, Elon Musk will be able to finance his most ambitious and potentially most expensive dream: a city on Mars.
What is Starlink?
Satellite internet provides online access to anyone within satellite coverage. It is independent of terrestrial infrastructure and is well suited for rural and underserved areas. However, historically, this technology has been inferior to traditional connectivity for several important reasons.
Typically, satellite internet has high latency, meaning it takes a long time to get a response from a server. In such conditions, performing tasks that depend on a response, such as communicating on Zoom, is very difficult and practically impossible. To reduce latency, Starlink places satellites at a much lower altitude, about 550 km above sea level, and there are many more of them than a typical provider. The company has applied for permission to launch up to 42 thousand satellites.
The beta phase of the project started in late 2020. Users in the US pay a one-time fee of $499 (excluding tax and shipping) for a Starlink dish and router kit. After that, the monthly subscription fee is $99 per month.
Currently, users are offered speeds of about 150 megabits per second, but SpaceX plans to reach 10 gigabits per second.
What does Starlink have to do with a city on Mars?
Musk had originally intended to fund the construction with Starlink. In 2015, when Musk announced the launch of the Starlink project, he said that it was needed “to generate revenue to pay for a city on Mars.”
As previously reported, Musk wants to use SpaceX's rocket to send people and cargo to Mars as soon as possible. His goal is to create a self-sufficient city by 2050.
In October 2019, Musk said that the cost of a city on Mars would be between $100 billion and $10 trillion. The estimate is based on the following assumptions.
1 million tons of cargo will be needed to create a self-sufficient city.
It costs $100,000 to send a ton of cargo to Mars on Starship.
So, over 30 years, Musk will need at least $100 billion over 30 years. That's about $3.33 billion per year. And that's what Starlink is for.
How SpaceX will pay for Mars
According to internal SpaceX projections from 2017, published by The Wall Street Journal, it is assumed that Starlink will fully finance the construction of the colony.
In 2017 alone, the commercial launch market earned about $4.5 billion. Accordingly, SpaceX's revenues are not enough to expand to other planets. At the same time, as Musk told reporters in May 2019, the global market for Internet providers is worth about $1 trillion.
At the same time, the entrepreneur believes that Starlink can jamaica number data claim 3-5% of this amount. This means that Starlink can bring in about $50 billion per year.
This is in line with SpaceX’s optimistic 2017 projections. At the time, the company predicted that by 2025 its revenue would exceed $35 billion per year, with Starlink accounting for about $30 billion. Moreover, it could reach operating income of more than $20 billion in the same year—that’s revenue minus recurring expenses.
If every person who applied for Starlink actually completes their order, SpaceX will receive $99 per month from half a million people — in other words, $49.9 million. That’s the same as $594 million per year before expenses.
It will take about 2.5 million Starlink subscriptions to provide the required minimum of $3.3 billion per year.
This is before operating costs, which in practice means that SpaceX will need more subscribers to cover Starlink's ongoing costs.
That’s not small. In April 2020, rival HughesNet announced that it had become the first satellite internet provider to reach 1 million subscribers. SpaceX will have to outbid HughesNet and several others. It will also have to maintain them and get paid for 30 years.
Perhaps dissatisfied HughesNet users will switch to SpaceX. Or Starlink will attract its own subscribers. From a net operating income perspective, the goal looks achievable. If the company’s projections hold true, and SpaceX does indeed generate $20 billion in operating income by 2025, it could reach the lower end of the required amount in just five years.