Spacex elon mask. The history of SpaceX: how Elon Musk is bringing the colonization of Mars closer. Revival after the explosion

Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) - an interplanetary transport system that will be used to deliver the first colonists to the Red Planet.

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According to the ITS promotional video, the rocket with the spacecraft is first launched into orbit, and then separated from the ship and returned to Earth. In orbit, the ship is refueled, and then it deploys solar panels that generate 200 kilowatts of power and begins moving towards Mars.

According to previous statements, Elon Musk plans to send people to Mars by 2024. According to the updated schedule, the first expeditions will begin at the end of 2022.

The first missions to the Red Planet will begin to be implemented in 2018 - for example, dropping supplies and other supplies for the survival of the first colonists. Each Dragon ship will be able to “carry” 2-3 tons of payload.

At the conference, Musk explained the reason for going to Mars as two things: the development of the human race as interplanetary travelers, and the remote possibility of the extinction of all life on Earth. The other planet closest to Earth, Venus, has a too unfriendly atmosphere, similar to an “acid bath”: “Venus is not at all like the [eponymous] goddess,” the head of SpaceX explained the choice.

Because Mars is further from the Sun than Earth, it is somewhat cooler - but the planet can be "warmed up" by geothermal changes and create an atmosphere friendly enough for growing plants. In the past, Musk has already suggested that Mars can be heated, for example, using thermonuclear bombs.

Musk estimates that the cost per person of a trip to Mars is currently $10 billion. If it can be reduced to the price of one house in the United States, many will be able to begin relocating to the Red Planet. This will require using completely renewable means, the right (efficient) fuel that can be produced directly on Mars, and also refueling ships in orbit (rather than spending money on delivering fuel into orbit every time a new ship is sent).

For example, kerosene cannot be produced on Mars due to the lack of oil on the planet. However, liquid methane is possible, and in almost all respects it is suitable for effective cost reduction, says the head of SpaceX.

According to Musk, the ITS simulation video is the result of the work of engineers, not artists: it reflects exactly what SpaceX is trying to achieve, and future ships will be virtually identical to what is depicted in the video.

The largest number of reuses SpaceX puts into a launch vehicle is to launch a spacecraft into orbit - 1000 times. The refueling tanker is planned to be used about 100 times, and the ship itself - 12-15 times. On it, colonists will send cargo from Mars to Earth or fly away themselves.

According to calculations, approximately 100 people fit into one ship. The launch vehicle that will be used to launch the spacecraft into orbit will have 3.5 times the mass of the world's heaviest rocket, the one that launched the first human landing on the Moon.

On planets with weak gravitational attraction - for example, the Moon or Mars - a launch vehicle is not needed to enter orbit: the ship itself can handle this task. The rocket has 42 engines built in (it can lose some of them and still continue moving), and the ship has nine.

One trip to Mars, depending on the year in which the flights will take place, will take from 90 to 150 days. According to Musk, during the flight the ship's crew should have fun - in the compartment they can enjoy zero gravity, watch movies, give lectures or relax in a restaurant.

If a person takes less than a ton of payload with him, his flight will cost less than 200 thousand dollars, Musk believes.

Musk did not name the exact structure of income that will be used to finance the program. In his opinion, both SpaceX’s profits from launching satellites and delivering cargo to the ISS, as well as voluntary donations to the project through Kickstarter, can be used for this.

Musk estimates that it will take at least 40 years to create a fully autonomous civilization on Mars.

Musk noted that technology does not develop on its own, but only when the minds of engineers are applied to a specific problem to solve it. There have already been examples in the history of mankind when technologies developed to a certain level and then rolled back, and the latest such example is the situation with the lunar program.

In addition to the Mars program, the new ships can also be used to move around the Earth - according to Musk, it will be possible to travel with them to anywhere on the planet within 45 minutes. In addition, Musk plans to install “refueling stations” for spaceships on other planets - this will allow travel to any point in the solar system.

According to Musk, he himself will someday fly to Mars - when he can decide what will happen to the company if for some reason he dies and SpaceX investors are left alone with the problem of maximizing profits: “First flight will have a very high probability of death, and I still want to see how my children grow up.”

Musk plans to call the first ship that will go to Mars Heart of Gold - by analogy with the spaceship from the novel “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”: “I think our first flight will also be of infinite improbability.”

Even before performing on stage, Musk revealed some details of ITS on his microblog. Launch vehicle diameter

It is unknown whether the company will achieve what it has planned for 2017. But, if Elon Musk’s plans are implemented, a revolution in astronautics awaits us all, and if not, then the beginning of the end for SpaceX. However, one of these events clearly looks more likely than the other.

Revival after the explosion

Over the past two years, Elon Musk's rocket brainchild has had a rocket with a payload explode twice. Both times the reason was the same: problems with the helium tank. The new launch comes after months of work to get rid of this problem. And it seems that the persistent guys from SpaceX have succeeded in something:

The huge progress in this launch is not even that after it the first stage landed back on Earth. This happened for the third time, and hardly surprised anyone, although no one had ever done this before SpaceX. More importantly, the stage descended through fairly dense clouds, in which maintaining the stability of a tall, large and very light object (an almost empty light-alloy stage) is difficult. Take a look at the hard work of the grid bars at the bottom of the step in the video above, or the overall landing picture:

It’s also easy to notice something that the developers themselves couldn’t even dream of a year ago - extremely precise landing in the center of the desired spot on the site. SpaceX began flying into space five years ago, but is learning extremely quickly. The stage lands almost perfectly, in a dense and cloudy atmosphere under Earth's gravity. But the Schiaparelli lander, made by the European Space Agency (in space for half a century), just recently crashed during landing on Mars, where it was necessary to compensate for much lower gravity, and there were no clouds and decent turbulence at all.

As Gwynne Shotwell, a SpaceX executive, noted on Friday, Feb. 17, the helium tank issues have made the last two years "painful" for the company, as it's difficult for the launch supplier to make money if it's not flying. In our country, journalists and experts have calculated the company’s losses and profits during this period and have already managed to generate witty, albeit overly complex theories that Musk will now have to go to the American state for money. Other observers see the situation more simply: the resumption of flights will automatically improve the company's financial situation.

A turning point year

For 2017, Elon Musk has planned as much as no state space agency has managed since the fall of the USSR. In March, he plans to reuse the first stage of a rocket to launch cargo into space for the first time in history. Moreover, such a launch should be cheaper than a conventional launch, which uses a new stage. Starting in April 2017, the window opens for the first ever flight of a reusable cargo spacecraft launched on a launch vehicle. With its help, cargo will be delivered to the ISS.

In the middle of the year, SpaceX intends to launch the heaviest existing launch vehicle, Falcon Heavy, built on a completely atypical architecture. The blocks of its first stage are also planned to be reusable, and therefore the payload launch prices promise to be lower than that of the disposable Angara. If we remember that the more expensive Falcon 9 has seriously displaced the Proton, then it is quite difficult to understand how the Angara will compete in price with the Heavy Falcon. Musk needs such a rocket to participate in the global project of medium-altitude satellites distributing the Internet. In other words, the market that Russia may not be able to enter because of Musk’s new rocket is quite large.

In November 2017, Dragon 2 is due to fly - the first privately developed spacecraft in history, and at the same time the first reusable one. In general, there are too many “firsts in history,” even for a year ending in 17. Only a miracle will help a fairly small organization cope with all this at once. Nevertheless, achieving even part of these goals will mean a big leap forward. In the case of a reusable stage or a heavy Falcon Heavy, not only for SpaceX, but for the entire world astronautics.

And so far we have...

Let us recall the facts: during the entire post-Soviet period, our country has so far launched zero fundamentally new spacecraft (not to mention reusable ones), one new heavy launch vehicle, and zero reusable first stages. And this is not because we have any problems with engineers. As we have already done, RSC Energia and other Russian developers are already working on the third project of a domestic spacecraft, since Soyuz has objectively become too small for our cosmonautics. Rocketeers from Miass have been trying to convince management to build a reusable first stage since 2007 - when Musk had not yet spoken about it in public.

We theoretically have new heavy rockets (since 2014), although their payload is more than two times less than that of the Falcon Heavy. However, there is still little practice in this theory. Neither in 2015, nor in 2016, nor in 2017 did the heavy Angara fly and will not fly. And this despite the fact that in August 2015, the director of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center Andrei Kalinovsky confirmed its launch in 2016 - already with a commercial satellite. At the same time, he uttered the famous words about his enterprise: “Land in Moscow is our only liquid asset today.” After which, naturally, it was decided to send the production facilities to the Urals, where, again, workers can be paid less. Unpleasant talk that this postponement will send the second rocket launch into the 2020s is still difficult to refute - but I would like it to be so.

Back in March of the same year, he decided not to build a rocket capable, like the Falcon Heavy, of launching 50–70 tons into space until almost the 2030s. With the wording “no need”. At another time, they would argue with her, but now it’s difficult to do so. If we start launching new heavy rockets in the 20s, then superheavy rockets before the 30s really shouldn’t interest us. All this leads us to a rather interesting situation, when a private company that flew into space five years ago can already in 2017 obtain technological capabilities greater than those of the country that once launched man into space. Nightmare? No.

To be honest, new rockets and ships in space themselves are not needed. They serve to perform very specific tasks. We didn’t launch the Miass “Rossiyanka”, the spaceships and heavy “Angara” planned since the 90s, not because we can’t do it, but because we don’t know why to do it. Our lag - if SpaceX follows through with its plan - will become obvious. And it is not located in the space industry as such, but in the heads of those who set goals for it. And this is not the first time.

What big announcements should we expect in the coming years? And, most importantly, where will Musk get the money for this?

Elon Musk's SpaceX has many ambitious projects, but two stand out among them - entwining the planet with a network of Internet satellites and building a huge rocket that can take people to the Moon and Mars. There is little information about these plans, but we still know something - from the company’s reporting, Elon Musk’s tweets and published ones.

SpaceX's flagship product, the Falcon 9 rocket, recently received NASA certification for its most expensive science missions. Company President Gwynne Shotwell called the event "a major achievement for the Falcon 9 team." The company said at least 22 Falcon 9 launches are planned for 2019, highlighting the reliability of the rocket that will carry astronauts into orbit next year.

But around the world, only $5.5 billion is spent annually on rocket launches, and this money also goes to competitors from Europe, Russia and China. So SpaceX needs to develop new businesses to justify its $27 billion valuation.

Internet from space

The global goal of the Starlink project is to launch several thousand satellites into low Earth orbit and provide Internet access to all users on Earth. The company has been developing these plans for several years. This year the news is mixed. On the one hand, two test satellites have been launched and approval has been received from the US government. On the other hand, there have been changes in the project management, and today SpaceX refuses to say who is now responsible for the design and construction of satellites.

However, the company still plans to launch the service in 2020, with the first batch of satellites expected to be in orbit by the end of next year. Computer scientist Mark Handley from University College London believes that Internet connections will be so fast that high-speed trading (trading using special strategies in which computers buy and sell positions within fractions of a second) will be able to take advantage of it. - Ed. .).

Recently, the US Federal Communications Commission, led by Ajit Pai, took an initiative to ease regulation of space-related businesses. And this is to SpaceX's advantage, since the Starlink project requires the launch of 4,425 satellites, which will double the number of devices in orbit and increase the risk of collisions and space debris.

On November 7, the SpaceX executive working to obtain satellite licenses met with Pai to show how seriously SpaceX takes this problem, since the company's survival depends on the ability to launch satellites, which means it is the most threatened by space debris. The next day, SpaceX submitted an application to reduce the orbital altitude of future satellites by 560 kilometers relative to the original plans.

A lower orbit reduces the risks associated with debris generation because satellites will deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere within five years, and there will also be 16 fewer satellites needed and faster connection speeds. On the other hand, SpaceX will have to sacrifice some of its service reach and amortize its satellite investment in a shorter time frame, but the company clearly believes that these costs will make it easier for regulators and shareholders to approve.

Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium, which provides satellite communications services and uses SpaceX to launch satellites into orbit, called the move “a very responsible one.”

Financing of rocket launches

Musk says the goal of the Starlink project is to raise money for the company's Mars mission. However, launching the system itself will not be cheap, and SpaceX plans to borrow money. According to Bloomberg, the company hopes to raise $750 million, and Bank of America will be the organizer of the round.

It is reported that initially they wanted to organize the deal through the bank Goldman Sachs, with which Musk usually cooperates, but investment bankers refused to participate, suggesting that the company would continue to lend more and more. Today, SpaceX doesn't have major debt and even has a profit, but the company does rely on debt to finance future launches and government projects.

The company's first spacecraft, called Falcon 1, was financed mainly from Musk's personal funds. The next major project, the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft, was created with government support. In 2015, Google and Fidelity invested $1 billion in SpaceX, partly for the Starlink project. But raising funds to build the huge, fully reusable BFR rocket capable of taking people to Mars (which the company wants to launch by 2022) is much more difficult.

Another source of profit is space tourism. It is known that Musk accepted a significant deposit of the order of hundreds of millions of dollars from Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for a future flight around the Moon.

Last Saturday Musk

Today, every second schoolchild knows the name of Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, father of Tesla electric cars and private rocket manufacturer SpaceX. And, perhaps, the brightest dreamer among famous entrepreneurs. More than 50 years ago, humanity might not have believed that space exploration was possible. More than 10 years ago, people would not have believed that a private company would explore space as a sphere.

You can be skeptical about SpaceX's ambitions. You can put a photo of Elon Musk on your desktop and watch every Dragon launch live. But one cannot be indifferent or unaware of what this company is doing in private space. For those who do not belong to “every second schoolchild” - a short history of SpaceX.

Seeds on Mars

In early 2002, Elon Musk, already a multimillionaire at the age of 30, switches to a new mission - to return public interest in sending a person to Mars. Throughout his life, Musk, a businessman and physicist by training, has dreamed of installing a small greenhouse on the surface of the red planet with the seeds of an earthly plant to inspire humanity to colonize Mars.

The problem with realizing this modest dream lay not in existing spacecraft, but in the high cost of launching them. Unwilling to pay what American rocket companies were demanding, Musk made three trips to Russia, considering buying a refurbished Dnepr rocket, which cost about $20 million. Pondering the pricing and financial risks, he decided it would be easier, after all, to make his own missiles than to bargain with the Americans or make deals with the Russians.

This is how one of the few and most advanced companies in “private space”, SpaceX, was conceived. It turns out that the purpose of its creation was to simplify “transportation costs” for future colonists of Mars.

Falcon and Dragon

By 2006, SpaceX had developed the first launch vehicle - Falcon 1, which was launched on March 24, 2006, but ended in an accident in the first stage engine. Only after three unsuccessful attempts, on September 28, 2008, Falcon 1 manages to enter low orbit and deliver a unit of payload to an altitude of 500-700 km. This event marked the first successful launch of a private rocket into orbit.

A year later, the launch vehicle, on its fifth launch, delivers into orbit the 5th commercial satellite, RazakSAT, owned by Malaysia.

By 2010, Space X was developing a second, heavier launch vehicle, comparable in characteristics to the Russian Soyuz-2, the Falcon 9. And it seems that the lessons learned from the failures with the first launches allowed the Falcon 9 to launch on June 4, 2010 year to successfully launch and become the first private spacecraft to enter orbit.

Interesting fact. At the time of launch, there was a certain cargo on board the ship, classified personally by Elon Max. After the operation, it became known that the cargo turned out to be a wheel of cheese. Space X later clarified that this was a reference to the famous cheese shop sketch by the Monty Python comedy troupe. The head of cheese was in a special container screwed to the floor of the shuttle. There was a humorous inscription on the container: “Top Secret.”

Another bright milestone in the history of SpaceX and private space is the launch and successful splashdown of the first Dragon cargo ship, non-governmental, but developed for NASA. "Dragon" is the only operating "truck" in the world capable of returning to Earth. In August 2011, NASA gave its consent to the launch and docking of the Dragon spacecraft with the ISS. On May 25, 2013, the mission launched with a successful entry into orbit and subsequent docking with the ISS.

NASA and Space X are contracting for 12 spacecraft missions to the International Space Station through 2016. The total value of the agreement is $1.6 billion. To date, 5 flights have been completed. Just the day before, on February 10, 2015, the Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of California with 1,700 kg of cargo delivered from the ISS.

On the same day, the launch of the DSCOVR research satellite was planned, but had to be postponed due to weather conditions. However, today, February 12, the device was launched into outer space. DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) will monitor solar storms and strong electromagnetic emissions that can affect the operation of orbiting satellites.

SpaceX plans

Today, Elon Musk’s ambitions, if they cause some skepticism among specialists, are numerous fans of Space X, enthusiastic about the idea of ​​private space and the colonization of Mars, the press, and most importantly, investors, the company’s activities continue to keep them in suspense.

The main goals of Space X are now very ambitious: reusable rockets, the Falcon Heavy super-heavy rocket, a private spaceport and, of course, the colonization of Mars, which should at least be preceded by an expedition with a crew on board the ship.

Rocket with legs

Reusing the first stage - the most expensive part of the rocket - could reduce the cost of space launches by 70%.

In 2012, the first concept of the idea of ​​a reusable Falcon 9 appeared, that is, a launch vehicle capable of returning to Earth and taking off again. In 2013, a more advanced model appeared - Falcon 9R.

It is a kind of rocket “with legs”, or the first rocket stage, which, after completing the main task, must maneuver and take a vertical position in the air, necessary for a soft landing. The first tests fail, but the engineers manage to identify the main error. Finally, in April 2014, the launch and return of the rocket with its legs after numerous transfers did take place: the first stage assumed a vertical position and splashed down at minimum speed, but, unfortunately, was lost in the ocean. However, this can be called more of a success than a failure.

The latest launch test of the reusable Falcon 9 looked like this, although it also helped get the results.

Private spaceport

In August of this year, SpaceX announced another ambitious goal - the construction of the world's first private spaceport.

The project will be supported by the State of Texas, where it is planned to be located in Brownsville. Construction of the private spaceport will create about 300 jobs and should bring about $85 million in capital investment to the Texas economy.

Colonization

In 2012, Elon Musk said he was working to make a family flight to Mars cost $500,000 by 2029.

In May 2014, SpaceX introduced a new generation of spacecraft called Dragon V2. According to Musk, they are capable of landing “anywhere on Earth,” carrying up to seven people, and being reusable. It is planned to begin transporting astronauts from the surface of the Earth to the ISS and back by 2017-2018.

And, despite the fact that the cost of the flight still looks cosmic - on the scale of space as a sphere (and in general), it is truly negligible. You may not believe in Musk’s ambitions and be skeptical about SpaceX’s plans, but it cannot be denied that the very existence of a private company that has shaken the state monopoly accelerates the development of the entire sphere, and as a result, space exploration.

Elon (Elon) Reeve Musk(English: Elon Reeve Musk) is a Canadian-American engineer, entrepreneur, inventor, and investor. Elon Musk is the founder of Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla, and also a member of the board of directors of SolarCity, founded by his cousins.

Early years and childhood of Elon Musk

Mother - May Musk, was a model and a famous nutritionist. Father - Errol Musk, is a pilot, sailor and engineer. He made money by consulting.

The family had three children: Elon, Kimbal and daughter Tosca. May and Errol divorced when the children were young. But they stayed with their father, and Errol Musk was able to raise successful children.

As a child, Elon was an unusual child; he read a lot. As his father recalled, once Elon, when he was three or four years old, asked him: “Where does the world end and begin?”

Pictured left: aged 12 with a fish he caught on a family fishing trip in South Africa. In the photo on the right: with brother and sister (Photo: eastbaytimes.com)

Elon and Kimbal attended Pretoria Boys High School. Elon graduated from school with excellent marks in physics and computer science. At the same time, at school, Musk had a difficult time in relationships with other children; after one of the beatings, he had to repair a broken nose, according to Elon Musk’s biography on Wikipedia.

Since childhood, Elon read a lot, loved science fiction, Jules Verne before Asimov, Heinlein And Tolkien. Novel Douglas Adams“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” helped him cope with an identity crisis at the age of fourteen, and the books “Academy” and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” awakened Elon’s interest in space, according to Musk’s biography on the World of Science Fiction website.

When Elon Musk was 10 years old, he received his first Commodore VIC-20 computer as a gift, which he used for programming; at the age of 12, he sold his first program for $500, the game Blastar, in which you could shoot at aliens with a laser gun.

In the photo on the left: Elon Musk with his mother, brother and sister. In the photo on the right: Elon Musk's father (Photo: notjustrich.com)

To avoid conscription into the army in South Africa, the boys went to Canada to live with their mother. It is noted that Musk raised the money for the trip himself by selling shares of a pharmaceutical company.

At age 19, Elon entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. In 1992, Musk moved to the United States and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the College of Arts and Sciences and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the Wharton School of Business. Over time, he transferred to Stanford, but did not complete his studies.

Elon Musk's career

Zip2 is the first company founded jointly by the Musk brothers in 1996. They were engaged in software production. Their project was a digital equivalent of the Yellow Pages, with which you could find the nearest pizzeria in any area of ​​​​San Francisco. The startup did not develop as quickly as Elon wanted, but his hard work made it possible to bring it to such a level that investors became interested in it. Soon, Compac acquired Zip2 for $307 million, 22 million went to Elon Musk personally, and he became a millionaire at the age of 27.

In March 1999, Elon Musk co-founded X.com (investing $12 million of his own savings), intending to revolutionize the banking payments industry. Already in 2000, the companies X.com and Confinity merged, thereby merging the X.com and PayPal systems. Musk demanded the X.com brand instead of PayPal for the new formation. This caused disagreements within the organization, and Elon resigned by decision of the Board of Directors. But strategically and economically, Musk again made the right move. In October 2002, PayPal was purchased by eBay for $1.5 billion, and Elon received $175 million for his 11.7% stake.

In the photo (from left to right): Peter Thiel and Elon Musk (Photo: strumpeople.com)

Elon Musk and SpaceX

In June 2002, Musk founded his third company, SpaceX. This company of Elon is associated with space developments; the purpose of its creation was to reduce the costs of space flights, promote its development and, in particular, the future colonization of Mars.

Elon Musk became chief engineer and CEO of SpaceX. On March 24, 2006, the company's first launch of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle took place, but it ended in an accident. However, that same year, SpaceX was one of the winners of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition, receiving $396 million in total funding to develop and demonstrate the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft.

Photo: SpaceX Falcon 1 from the air shortly after launch as it rises over Omelek Island in the Marshall Islands. 2006 (Photo: wikipedia.org)

On September 28, 2008, the first successful launch of the Falcon 1 rocket took place and the payload was launched into orbit. Thanks to the energetic actions of Elon Musk, the company has developed two types of potentially reusable launch vehicles: Falcon 1 and Falcon 9, as well as the reusable Dragon spacecraft.

Photo: Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and CTO, unveils the SpaceX Dragon V2 spacecraft at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, 2014 (Photo: AP Photo/TASS)

In December 2008, NASA signed a $1.6 billion contract with the company for 12 launches of the Falcon 9 carrier and then the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, as a replacement for the Space Shuttle after the termination of their launch program in 2011.

Further achievements of SpaceX were: the launch of the Dragon spacecraft, which was launched into orbit and returned to Earth on December 8, 2010, the first ever landing of the first stage on the ground, carried out after the payload was launched into low-Earth orbit (December 22, 2015), the first successful landing the first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle onto the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship offshore platform (April 8, 2016) and the first launch and landing of a used Falcon 9 launch vehicle stage (March 31, 2017).

Photo: SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaking at the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. Musk elaborated on his plans to colonize Mars, 2016 (Photo: AP Photo/Refugio Ruiz/TASS)

One of Musk's fantasies was the exploration of Mars. According to Elon, Mars research will make it possible to set the price for transport flights to the planet at $500 thousand, which is “quite acceptable” for residents of developed countries, and will also mark the beginning of the exploration of other planets.

“I like to be involved in projects that change the world. The Internet did it, and space will probably change the world more than anything else. If humanity can go beyond the Earth, it is obvious that its future will be there,” the entrepreneur asserted.

Elon Musk has repeatedly spoken out in favor of the colonization of Mars, including proposing to drop thermonuclear bombs on the poles of Mars in order to heat the surface of the planet and make it suitable for life.

In April 2016, news came out that SpaceX's Red Dragon spacecraft would fly to Mars no later than 2018. There is a version that Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, reacted in this way to the message about the start of the hardware implementation of the promising Russian spacecraft “Federation”.

SpaceX is planning a 2018 mission to Mars (Photo: SpaceX/ZUMAPRESS.com/Global Look Press)

During the expedition to Mars, technologies for delivering large cargo to the surface of the planet will be developed, the company’s Twitter reports. If the mission is successful, SpaceX will become the first private company to send a ship to Mars.

In May 2017, the media reported that the American company Elysium Space was selling space on a spaceship for the ashes of the dead. Elysium Space will be launched into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Elon Musk's Space X company.

It is reported that for 2.5 thousand dollars, relatives can send the remains of their loved ones into space, where the “star hearse” will circle the Earth’s orbit for two years, after which it will enter the atmosphere and burn up.

In September 2017, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced the possibility of using a multi-purpose rocket to fly to anywhere on Earth in half an hour.

"Get to most places on Earth in under 30 minutes and anywhere in under 60. The ticket should cost about the same as a full-fledged economy class airline ticket," Musk wrote on Instagram.

The new rocket, tentatively called BFR, will use the company's previous achievements, as reported by RIA Novosti. The rocket can replace Falcon 9 and Dragon, and it can also be used for flights to the Moon and Mars. It is noted that the BFR rocket will refuel after entering low-Earth orbit, and then fly to its destination; the technology will allow flying to the Moon and back.

Elon Musk's Tesla

In 2003, Elon founded a company that he named after Nikola Tesla Tesla Motors. The scope of activity of this company is the creation of environmentally friendly electric vehicles.

In 2008, Tesla Motors released the first electric car, the Tesla Roadster. The car was criticized, but Elon Musk and his company worked to improve the car and the Tesla Model S was introduced in 2011.

Tesla Roadster (Photo: CarrrsMag.com)

On September 27, 2012, a revolutionary network of super-refueling stations for long-distance travel was launched. Two Tesla Model S electric cars were tested and traveled from the West Coast to the East Coast from January 28 to February 2, 2014. For recharging, only “superchargers” (electric filling stations) were used. The trip from Los Angeles took 76 and a half hours and cost $0, thereby setting a Guinness record.

Tesla Model S (Photo: tesla.com)

At the end of 2014, Tesla Motors introduced the Tesla Model X, a new electric crossover car. In 2016, a new budget model was introduced - Tesla Model 3. In 2016, the company's share price reaches $231.55, market capitalization is $29 billion. Tesla Model 3 is built on a new chassis. The basic version of the electric car will be able to accelerate from zero to 96 kilometers per hour in less than six seconds, and the top version in 4 seconds. The battery supply is enough for 350-400 kilometers. Model 3 will start at $35,000.

Tesla Model X (Photo: tesla.com)

In 2016, Tesla received at least 373,000 orders for its most affordable model, the Model 3. Musk said that due to the very large number of orders for the car, the company will try to “increase production volumes as quickly as possible.” At the same time, Elon Musk released a long-term development plan for Tesla, promising that already in 2017 new models of transport that run on electric energy would be presented: heavy trucks and urban passenger transport.

Elon Musk also said that Tesla Motors is quite capable of creating a flying car just to have it, but it is much more difficult to make it quiet and safe. “It’s unlikely that people will be happy about a car roaring over their heads,” Musk was quoted as saying by the media.

In March 2017, the news reported that Tesla intends to open its representative offices, showrooms and service centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Hyperloop Elon Musk

In 2012, Musk, in addition to announcing his plans to conquer space, announced another project - a high-speed pipeline passenger transport Hyperloop (“hyperloop”). In 2012, Musk said in an interview that the new vehicle would be 2 times faster than an airplane and 3-4 times faster than a high-speed train, would be safe and run on solar energy, and the Hyperloop would be much cheaper than the California High-Speed ​​Rail project*. In January 2015, Elon Musk also announced his desire to build a 5-mile Hyperloop test track in Texas.

Hyperloop high-speed pipeline passenger transport project (Photo: hyperloop.com)

Co-founder of Hyperloop One Shervin Pishevar expressed hope for cooperation with the Russian authorities, in particular, he spoke about the prospect of using such trains to transport Chinese goods to Europe through the territory of the Russian Federation; the news wrote about the possible use of technology on the Moscow-London route.

In the summer of 2017, US authorities gave Elon Musk permission to begin work on the construction of a tunnel between New York and Washington for the implementation of the Hyperloop project. The businessman promises that his project will help residents of these two cities cover the 250 km distance between them in less than half an hour.

Social activities of Elon Musk

Another of Elon Musk’s promising projects is SolarCity . The company produces solar panels for generating electricity. SolarCity is one of the leading suppliers of such panels worldwide.

Solarcity, one of the world's largest installers of solar systems (Photo: solarcity.com/TASS)

Billionaire Elon Musk does not forget about charity. Elon became chairman of the board of the Musk Foundation. In January 2015, the foundation donated $10 million to the Future of Humanity Institute for research into the control of artificial intelligence.

Elon Musk commented on the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin about the creation of artificial intelligence in a very original way:

“I think the race for leadership in artificial intelligence will most likely lead to World War III,”

“Elon Musk heard certain things about her behavior that categorically did not suit him. Amber can be very selfish and often manipulates others,” said a source close to the couple.

Elon Musk's income

In August 2017, Forbes reported that Elon Musk, who nearly went bankrupt after launching Tesla Motors and the rocket company SpaceX, was worth more than $20 billion for the first time on its annual list of the richest tech billionaires. Musk took 12th place with $20.7 billion, ahead of the Microsoft Corporation co-founder Paul Allen($20.5 billion) and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alphabet Eric Schmidt($12.4 billion). It is reported that since March 2017, according to Forbes, Elon Musk has become richer by almost $7 billion.

The publication explained these data by the growth of SpaceX's capitalization, the value of which was estimated at $21 billion. Musk owns more than half of SpaceX.

At the same time, Musk's Wikipedia biography states that in July 2017 he was ranked 80th on the list of the world's richest people with $16.1 billion.

In December 2016, Elon Musk was ranked 21st on Forbes' list of the world's most powerful people.

Elon Musk V movie

Elon Musk is very popular in the USA. According to Jon Favreau, director of the film “Iron Man” (2008), Elon Musk served as the inspiration for Tony Stark, whom he played Robert Downey Jr. In 2010, Musk appeared in the film Iron Man 2 as himself (in the story, Elon is Tony Stark's friend).

Still from the movie "Iron Man 2"

Elon Musk made a cameo in the 12th episode of the 26th season of the animated series The Simpsons, released on January 25, 2015. In episode 9 of season 9 of The Big Bang Theory, Musk also played a cameo. In 2017, he starred in the comedy “Why Him?” as himself.

Musk can fly a plane. Elon owned a Czechoslovakian-made Aero L-39 Albatros and a Dassault Falcon 900 jet. In October 2013, Musk bought the Wet Nellie submarine car from the 1977 James Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me” at auction for $997,000.

* High-speed rail - California's high-speed rail system, currently under construction, which will connect Los Angeles to San Francisco. The trains have stated speeds of up to 220 miles (350 km/h) per hour, providing a one-way trip of 2 hours 40 minutes. Construction began in 2015 and is expected to be completed in 2029.

 

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