Musk has suggested that a Mars colony is most viable if you can sell tickets at a market price of about $500,000. Or rather, that a mid-to-upper class family in California might decide to move to Mars instead of buying a house on Earth. I&#x27;ve seen estimates that would place the number of early potential customers at 80,000[1]. So one very large revenue stream will be direct ticket sales to people like me.<p>Another early revenue stream will be science done and paid for by governments, universities, etc. There will eventually be a Martian economy, and SpaceX will be well-suited to earning money from the colonies [2]. There will be lots of ways to make lots of money if you have a thriving Mars colony with millions of people moving there and a constant supply of materials going both directions.<p>[1]: So that&#x27;s people that will be able to afford to go in 20 years and who also want to move to Mars.<p>[2]: How much value has America created since it was a colony? Sure, Britain didn&#x27;t actually earn that money itself since there was a war over it - but establishing colonies in &quot;new worlds&quot; does seem like it could be a very profitable venture.