December 8, 2015 at 14:46Elon Musk - “iron man” in the real world
Elon Musk is one of the most prominent and energetic people of our time who are changing the world. He is co-founder of PayPal, founder of SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and co-founder of SolarCity. He independently learned to design space rockets and ships. He is compared with such geniuses as Werner von Braun, Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs. And it was not without reason that he became the prototype of the hero Robert Downey in the sci-fi movie Iron Man. The billionaire engineer Musk has developed many revolutionary technologies and is not going to stop.
Elon Musk: “I want to be part of what is changing the world” The
future genius was born in 1971 in South African Pretoria in the family of a local engineer and a former Canadian model. When Ilon was 9 years old, his parents divorced. The boy lived mainly with his father.
Since childhood, he loved books and read a lot. The legendary trilogy of John Tolkien “The Lord of the Rings” and the fantastic satire of Douglas Adams “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” played a special role in the formation of the character of the young Mask.
Quote Mask:
Musk began programming from school age.
Musk learned everything on his own. From the age of 10, he began programming and at the age of 12 he sold the first Blastar game he created for $ 500. At the age of 17 (1988), with the support of his mother, the young man went to Montreal (Canada), where he did various jobs, balancing on the verge of poverty. In 1990, he entered Royal University of Ontario, where he studied for 2 years. There he met his future wife and mother of five children. Then he continued his studies in Pennsylvania, where he received a diploma in economics and physics. At age 24, Musk traveled to Stanford, California. But in the classroom she didn’t really appear, the place of science was taken by entrepreneurship. At the start of his career, he successfully selected three progressive business sectors to conquer: the Internet, clean energy and space.
Musk began to rapidly conquer the Internet when he was 23 years old. The World Wide Web was just beginning its path of formation and was one of the most promising areas for business. In 1995, together with their brother Kimbal, they created a program for supporting sites and publishing media content - Zip2. The brothers used a rented apartment in Palo Alto as an “office”.
In 1999, Compaq acquired Zip2 for $ 307 million. Musk earned a profit of 7% of the sale ($ 22 million). This money went to new projects.
Peter Thiel and Elon Musk
Musk began to master electronic payments. He became one of the founders of the startup X.com (e-mail payment system).
In 2000, X.com teamed up with Max Levchin, Peter Thiel - Confinity. One of the branches of this company was PayPal. Both systems (X.com and PayPal) were engaged in providing personal electronic money transfers via email.
But disagreements arose in the joint work, which led to the fact that Musk left the position of general director of the company. Thanks to a well-implemented and competent marketing company strategy, PayPal’s audience has grown rapidly. And in 2002, the eBay online auction bought out PayPal for $ 1.5 billion. As the largest shareholder, Musk received his share of the sale.
In 2003, Musk became one of the founders of Tesla Motors. The company's activity is the production of machines powered by electricity. The mask was very interested in the idea of creating an electric sports car. Together with Jeffrey Strobel, they decided to create Tesla Motors with the rest of the founders. Musk secured the lion's share of the financing, and also served as chairman and head of the design department for the development of the Tesla Roadster sports car, and later Model S. Transmission development remained on Strobel. The official presentation of the Roadster took place on July 19, 2006 in Santa Monica, California. The Model S prototype was first shown in 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Tesla motors
Musk remained the chairman of the board of directors and did not take over the operational management of the company. But the financial crisis in 2008 contributed to the fact that he became the CEO and chief designer of the company.
After the company survived the crisis, things went smoothly. The German concern Daimler invested about $ 50 million in Tesla. The state also provided financial assistance (for which it was criticized by the public, because the orientation of Tesla Motors products was aimed exclusively at wealthy customers).
The most successful model of the company was a luxury Model S sedan with a battery capacity of 426 km, a bright design and good speed characteristics (acceleration to 96 km / h in 3.9 s). In the first quarter of 2013, 4,750 copies of the Tesla Model S were sold in the United States. This model even received the “Car of the Year” award from Motor Trend 2013.
On October 6, 2014, Tesla introduced a new car, the Model S P85D. Its main difference from the predecessor was the availability of all-wheel drive.The Model S accelerates to 100 km / h in just 3.2 s.
The near future: the project of the quarter of houses with solar roofs
Along with Tesla Motors, Musk took up the startup of cousins Lindon and Peter Rive - SolarCity, where he invested about $ 10 million.
SolarCity was installing modular private solar power plants with a capacity of several kilowatts. This solution was ideal for small organizations and homes. SolarCity was engaged in long-term leasing, that is, it did not sell, but leased products for up to 20 years. Customers paid exclusively for the energy that the station generated. The deals were financed by third-party lenders who received tax benefits for supporting the green economy.
The SolarCity concept was economical, environmentally friendly, and fully aligned with the principles of the Mask. The company also built batteries for Tesla Motors electric car charging stations.
Musk is still the main shareholder of the company, whose capital is approaching $ 3 billion. SolarCity is one of the largest suppliers of solar energy systems in the United States.
Musk shared his revolutionary ideas in The Simpsons
The mask has always attracted space. As a child, he dreamed of creating a space rocket and flying to Mars. He was seized by an ambitious idea - to create a platform for multiple trips of a person to other planets. Starting, of course, from the cherished Mars.
In 2002, a businessman founded Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - SpaceX. The company, which was engaged in the private development of a series of launch vehicles, has become a commercial operator of space systems. Musk invested a fortune in this project and himself became the chief engineer of the company.
Chief Engineer Against the Background of the Dragon Spaceship
Here's what Musk says about SpaceX:
The first serious development of SpaceX was the Falcon 1 rocket project. Construction took about four years, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment. As a result, a rocket was created, and with it three types of liquid engines - Merlin, Kestrel and Draco.
In 2008, SpaceX became interested in NASA. This state space agency has signed with Musk a contract worth $ 1.6 billion for 12 launches of Falcon and the Dragon spaceship.
The first three launches of Falcon 1 between 2006 and 2008 were unsuccessful. But on the fourth attempt, the rocket launched, and on the fifth, it successfully launched the load into orbit and completed its flight. As Musk later put it, the future of SpaceX depended on the outcome of the rocket launch.
The Falcon 9 was used to launch Dragon's private cargo spacecraft as part of the supply program for the International Space Station. The ship in the future was supposed to accommodate crews of seven astronauts.
On tests of the Falcon 9 rocket, 2010.
In 2015, another successful launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle took place - the satellite successfully reached orbit. But it was not possible to accurately plant the first stage, it landed too hard on a special platform and some of the equipment was seriously damaged.
Max remembered his dream of flying to Mars. And in 2012, the head of SpaceX announced plans to explore and colonize the Red Planet. He intended to first land on the surface of Mars a small number of people (10-15 people) and a large amount of payload (up to 100 tons). Later, according to his calculations, the colony could be expanded to 80 thousand people. According to the entrepreneur, the study of Mars would allow to set the price of transport flights to the planet at the level of $ 500 thousand. Of course, Musk admitted that at first interplanetary flights would not be carried out very often because of their high cost. But over time, the situation should change. To do this, SpaceX began developing the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) project, a system that did not exist before. Led by Musk, SpaceX engineers are working on innovative rocket engines and spacecraft to deliver people from Earth to Mars. The presentation of the MCT is scheduled for the end of 2015. Simultaneously with the system, Musk is going to present a new space suit from SpaceX. The general director of the company promises that the “suit” will be not only functional, but also very modern in design.
According to the billionaire, the possibility of life on other planets serves as a defense against the threat of extinction of man as a biological species.
According to Mask, in 10-20 years, science fiction may well become a reality. “I would like to die on Mars. But just not crashing on the surface of the planet "- the billionaire jokes
In 2012, Musk announced another project - the high-speed vacuum train Hyperloop (hyperloop). He presented his idea as the fifth mode of transport, the fastest and cheapest.
Hyperloop was conceived as an elevated pipeline located on supports, inside of which single transport capsules move at a speed of 480 to 1,220 km / h with an interval of 30 seconds in one direction. Two options were supposed: passenger with an internal diameter of 2.23 m, capsule cross-section of 1.35 mx 1.1 m, accommodating 2 rows of seats for 14 seats each; passenger-freight with an inner pipe diameter of 3.3 m.
Hyperloop Project
The capsule was supposed to move using a linear electric motor. For this, it was envisaged to obtain energy using solar panels. They should produce 57 MW with a system demand of only 21 MW. Musk promises passengers an unprecedented level of security. In case of emergencies, an electric compressor was located in the nose of the capsule behind the fan, which was supposed to accumulate compressed air on board during depressurization. Also in the feed were placed 1.5 tons of batteries, the charge of which is enough for 45 minutes. Such time is enough to get to the nearest station in case of power outages.
In January 2015, Musk announced his intention to build a special track for testing Hyperloop. According to preliminary information, the project will be implemented in Texas.
Musk is actively interested in the topic of artificial intelligence development. As a man who grew up on science fiction literature, he fears the repetition of fantastic stories with an uprising of machines and the like.
In 2014, the billionaire invested $ 40 million in Vicarious FPC, an artificial intelligence company. The founders of the project plan to copy the areas of the cerebral cortex responsible for sensory perception, thinking, motor skills, speech - and convert everything into program code.
Musk sent $ 10 million to a research institute for the security of the human future. And he also wrote a letter for scientists, in which he described in detail what they had to do, how to manage the money received and what goals they were facing. Musk tries to keep his hand on the pulse.
By the way, the comparison of Elon Musk with the “iron man” Tony Stark is really remarkable. In addition to the thirst for revolutionary inventions, these two heroes have much in common in characteristics. Both are American billionaire engineers who followed in the footsteps of their fathers. The mask, like Stark, is interested in research in engineering, new technologies, and space. Even their growth and physique coincide ...
Elon Musk: “I want to be part of what is changing the world” The
future genius was born in 1971 in South African Pretoria in the family of a local engineer and a former Canadian model. When Ilon was 9 years old, his parents divorced. The boy lived mainly with his father.
Since childhood, he loved books and read a lot. The legendary trilogy of John Tolkien “The Lord of the Rings” and the fantastic satire of Douglas Adams “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” played a special role in the formation of the character of the young Mask.
Quote Mask:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy taught me that the hardest thing on earth is to choose which question to ask. But if you have made the right choice, then everything else will go easily.
Musk began programming from school age.
Musk learned everything on his own. From the age of 10, he began programming and at the age of 12 he sold the first Blastar game he created for $ 500. At the age of 17 (1988), with the support of his mother, the young man went to Montreal (Canada), where he did various jobs, balancing on the verge of poverty. In 1990, he entered Royal University of Ontario, where he studied for 2 years. There he met his future wife and mother of five children. Then he continued his studies in Pennsylvania, where he received a diploma in economics and physics. At age 24, Musk traveled to Stanford, California. But in the classroom she didn’t really appear, the place of science was taken by entrepreneurship. At the start of his career, he successfully selected three progressive business sectors to conquer: the Internet, clean energy and space.
Zip2, X.com and PayPal Projects
Musk began to rapidly conquer the Internet when he was 23 years old. The World Wide Web was just beginning its path of formation and was one of the most promising areas for business. In 1995, together with their brother Kimbal, they created a program for supporting sites and publishing media content - Zip2. The brothers used a rented apartment in Palo Alto as an “office”.
In 1999, Compaq acquired Zip2 for $ 307 million. Musk earned a profit of 7% of the sale ($ 22 million). This money went to new projects.
Peter Thiel and Elon Musk
Musk began to master electronic payments. He became one of the founders of the startup X.com (e-mail payment system).
In 2000, X.com teamed up with Max Levchin, Peter Thiel - Confinity. One of the branches of this company was PayPal. Both systems (X.com and PayPal) were engaged in providing personal electronic money transfers via email.
But disagreements arose in the joint work, which led to the fact that Musk left the position of general director of the company. Thanks to a well-implemented and competent marketing company strategy, PayPal’s audience has grown rapidly. And in 2002, the eBay online auction bought out PayPal for $ 1.5 billion. As the largest shareholder, Musk received his share of the sale.
Tesla Motors
In 2003, Musk became one of the founders of Tesla Motors. The company's activity is the production of machines powered by electricity. The mask was very interested in the idea of creating an electric sports car. Together with Jeffrey Strobel, they decided to create Tesla Motors with the rest of the founders. Musk secured the lion's share of the financing, and also served as chairman and head of the design department for the development of the Tesla Roadster sports car, and later Model S. Transmission development remained on Strobel. The official presentation of the Roadster took place on July 19, 2006 in Santa Monica, California. The Model S prototype was first shown in 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Tesla motors
Musk remained the chairman of the board of directors and did not take over the operational management of the company. But the financial crisis in 2008 contributed to the fact that he became the CEO and chief designer of the company.
After the company survived the crisis, things went smoothly. The German concern Daimler invested about $ 50 million in Tesla. The state also provided financial assistance (for which it was criticized by the public, because the orientation of Tesla Motors products was aimed exclusively at wealthy customers).
The most successful model of the company was a luxury Model S sedan with a battery capacity of 426 km, a bright design and good speed characteristics (acceleration to 96 km / h in 3.9 s). In the first quarter of 2013, 4,750 copies of the Tesla Model S were sold in the United States. This model even received the “Car of the Year” award from Motor Trend 2013.
On October 6, 2014, Tesla introduced a new car, the Model S P85D. Its main difference from the predecessor was the availability of all-wheel drive.The Model S accelerates to 100 km / h in just 3.2 s.
SolarCity
The near future: the project of the quarter of houses with solar roofs
Along with Tesla Motors, Musk took up the startup of cousins Lindon and Peter Rive - SolarCity, where he invested about $ 10 million.
SolarCity was installing modular private solar power plants with a capacity of several kilowatts. This solution was ideal for small organizations and homes. SolarCity was engaged in long-term leasing, that is, it did not sell, but leased products for up to 20 years. Customers paid exclusively for the energy that the station generated. The deals were financed by third-party lenders who received tax benefits for supporting the green economy.
The SolarCity concept was economical, environmentally friendly, and fully aligned with the principles of the Mask. The company also built batteries for Tesla Motors electric car charging stations.
Musk is still the main shareholder of the company, whose capital is approaching $ 3 billion. SolarCity is one of the largest suppliers of solar energy systems in the United States.
Musk shared his revolutionary ideas in The Simpsons
Space project SpaceX
The mask has always attracted space. As a child, he dreamed of creating a space rocket and flying to Mars. He was seized by an ambitious idea - to create a platform for multiple trips of a person to other planets. Starting, of course, from the cherished Mars.
In 2002, a businessman founded Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - SpaceX. The company, which was engaged in the private development of a series of launch vehicles, has become a commercial operator of space systems. Musk invested a fortune in this project and himself became the chief engineer of the company.
Chief Engineer Against the Background of the Dragon Spaceship
Here's what Musk says about SpaceX:
We strive for a great philosophical goal, although we are engaged in business. If we manage to build a company that will help a person become an interplanetary species - this will be tantamount to finding the Holy Grail. But if we create something that can deliver humans and equipment to Mars, I will consider the SpaceX task completed. At least at the current stage.
The first serious development of SpaceX was the Falcon 1 rocket project. Construction took about four years, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment. As a result, a rocket was created, and with it three types of liquid engines - Merlin, Kestrel and Draco.
In 2008, SpaceX became interested in NASA. This state space agency has signed with Musk a contract worth $ 1.6 billion for 12 launches of Falcon and the Dragon spaceship.
The first three launches of Falcon 1 between 2006 and 2008 were unsuccessful. But on the fourth attempt, the rocket launched, and on the fifth, it successfully launched the load into orbit and completed its flight. As Musk later put it, the future of SpaceX depended on the outcome of the rocket launch.
The Falcon 9 was used to launch Dragon's private cargo spacecraft as part of the supply program for the International Space Station. The ship in the future was supposed to accommodate crews of seven astronauts.
On tests of the Falcon 9 rocket, 2010.
In 2015, another successful launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle took place - the satellite successfully reached orbit. But it was not possible to accurately plant the first stage, it landed too hard on a special platform and some of the equipment was seriously damaged.
Max remembered his dream of flying to Mars. And in 2012, the head of SpaceX announced plans to explore and colonize the Red Planet. He intended to first land on the surface of Mars a small number of people (10-15 people) and a large amount of payload (up to 100 tons). Later, according to his calculations, the colony could be expanded to 80 thousand people. According to the entrepreneur, the study of Mars would allow to set the price of transport flights to the planet at the level of $ 500 thousand. Of course, Musk admitted that at first interplanetary flights would not be carried out very often because of their high cost. But over time, the situation should change. To do this, SpaceX began developing the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) project, a system that did not exist before. Led by Musk, SpaceX engineers are working on innovative rocket engines and spacecraft to deliver people from Earth to Mars. The presentation of the MCT is scheduled for the end of 2015. Simultaneously with the system, Musk is going to present a new space suit from SpaceX. The general director of the company promises that the “suit” will be not only functional, but also very modern in design.
According to the billionaire, the possibility of life on other planets serves as a defense against the threat of extinction of man as a biological species.
An asteroid or a super volcano is able to destroy us, we face risks that dinosaurs never dreamed of: some crazy virus is the result of bioengineering, a randomly created micro black hole, catastrophic global warming, or an as yet unknown technology. All of this can mean the end for us. Humanity has evolved over millions of years, but over the past sixty years, atomic weapons created pose a threat to complete self-destruction. Sooner or later, we must expand our life beyond our globe. Otherwise, we are facing extinction.
According to Mask, in 10-20 years, science fiction may well become a reality. “I would like to die on Mars. But just not crashing on the surface of the planet "- the billionaire jokes
Hyperloop - transport of the future
In 2012, Musk announced another project - the high-speed vacuum train Hyperloop (hyperloop). He presented his idea as the fifth mode of transport, the fastest and cheapest.
Hyperloop was conceived as an elevated pipeline located on supports, inside of which single transport capsules move at a speed of 480 to 1,220 km / h with an interval of 30 seconds in one direction. Two options were supposed: passenger with an internal diameter of 2.23 m, capsule cross-section of 1.35 mx 1.1 m, accommodating 2 rows of seats for 14 seats each; passenger-freight with an inner pipe diameter of 3.3 m.
Hyperloop Project
The capsule was supposed to move using a linear electric motor. For this, it was envisaged to obtain energy using solar panels. They should produce 57 MW with a system demand of only 21 MW. Musk promises passengers an unprecedented level of security. In case of emergencies, an electric compressor was located in the nose of the capsule behind the fan, which was supposed to accumulate compressed air on board during depressurization. Also in the feed were placed 1.5 tons of batteries, the charge of which is enough for 45 minutes. Such time is enough to get to the nearest station in case of power outages.
In January 2015, Musk announced his intention to build a special track for testing Hyperloop. According to preliminary information, the project will be implemented in Texas.
Artificial Intelligence Security
Musk is actively interested in the topic of artificial intelligence development. As a man who grew up on science fiction literature, he fears the repetition of fantastic stories with an uprising of machines and the like.
In 2014, the billionaire invested $ 40 million in Vicarious FPC, an artificial intelligence company. The founders of the project plan to copy the areas of the cerebral cortex responsible for sensory perception, thinking, motor skills, speech - and convert everything into program code.
Musk sent $ 10 million to a research institute for the security of the human future. And he also wrote a letter for scientists, in which he described in detail what they had to do, how to manage the money received and what goals they were facing. Musk tries to keep his hand on the pulse.
By the way, the comparison of Elon Musk with the “iron man” Tony Stark is really remarkable. In addition to the thirst for revolutionary inventions, these two heroes have much in common in characteristics. Both are American billionaire engineers who followed in the footsteps of their fathers. The mask, like Stark, is interested in research in engineering, new technologies, and space. Even their growth and physique coincide ...