Elon Musk, the billionaire early investor in PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla, is determined to not only take to the skies with Internet, but to take to the stars. He is eyeing the possibility of being the first to develop an Internet network in space that could potentially be used on Mars during early human colonization.

The SpaceX CEO is planning on a modest $10 billion budget for the plan that would see a second Internet in space built, The Verge reports. In addition, Musk plans for the new infrastructure to simultaneously offer Internet to over 3 billion currently unconnected.

In an interview with Businessweek, Musk got more specific about the details, stating that the project could expect hundreds of satellites orbiting the earth at a possible altitude of 750 miles. Some will serve to improve Internet speed and access on Earth.

"It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well," he said. "I think this needs to be done, and I don't see anyone else doing it."

As far as when the good people of Earth can expect to see some futuristic multi-world Internet, Musk said we "should not expect this to be active sooner than five years, but we see it as a long-term revenue source for SpaceX to be able to fund a city on Mars."

Our focus is on creating a global communications system that would be larger than anything that has been talked about to date," the modest mogul added.

The potential for increased speeds is relevant to the differing physics in outer space. According to Musk, the speed of light is 40% faster in the vacuum of space.

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