One way it becomes profitable: paying colonists for research. There are plenty of people here here who could benefit, possibly even financially, from research

One way it becomes profitable: paying colonists for research. There are plenty of people here here who could benefit, possibly even financially, from research there. Paying what is essentially a monopoly on research capability on mars would be one avenue of profitability for the project. Also think about this: once there's a profitable economy there of some kind, you'll get all sorts of capital interplay that doesn't actually need physical financial instruments to make happen, only networking.