Introduction to Elon Musk's Early Life
Beginning Of SpaceX
SpaceX was founded in 2002, by Elon Musk shortly after selling Paypal. After he sold Paypal, he began to question if he had contributed towards creating a better society. After these thoughts, Musk reverted back to his childhood fantasies and began to think about space travel and other sci-fi fantasies he had read about as a child. This lead Musk to join a society called the Mars Society where he began to form relationships and develop ideas for his future company. The society had planned to send mice into orbit where they would experience the same gravitational forces as if the mice were on Mars. This made Elon think more about it and he came up with rough plans to send mice not only into orbit, yet all the way to Mars. His plan lead him to develop a skilled team and set up his own organization called the Life of Mars Foundation. His plan slowly changed and deviated from the plan to send mice to Mars. He still planned to aim for Mars yet the ultimate plan was still undecided. Elon decided to take a trip to Russia in hopes to attain three missiles/rockets for about 20 million dollars total. When the Russians wanted 8 million each for the ICBM missiles, Elon was infuriated. What happened next was the pinnacle of SpaceX being founded. Elon and his crew began the plane ride home when Elon turned to his colleagues and showed them his ingenious plan. He had been reading and studying the aerospace industry and the physics behind it for months now and had practically taught himself rocket science. He developed a laid out spreadsheet containing all of the costs to build and launch a rocket. According to his calculations he had lowered the costs to build rockets by an impressive amount.
The Impact of SpaceX
SpaceX has become one of the, if not the only, successful private startup in the aerospace industry in the U.S. SpaceX has redefined space travel and given new life to the quest to discover and inhabit another planet. Prior to the birth of SpaceX, the aerospace industry had become quite stagnant and the technology remained relatively the same for years on years. Elon brought competition to the industry and has continued to amaze the world with what SpaceX can do. Elon's ultimate goal for SpaceX is to reach Mars, however, on the way to this goal, SpaceX has astonished the aerospace industry with countless breakthrough innovations that bring humanity closer and closer to Mars. SpaceX has proven that they can launch a rocket into space and back being able to land the rocket right side up, creating a reusable rocket. They have been successful with the process in test trials, however, the technology is not perfected enough yet to test with passengers. This is an incredible step towards creating completely reusable rockets which will bring the costs of launching rockets down tremendously. SpaceX is ultimately working to create the first customer friendly space experience, while striving to make the human race a multi-planetary species.
SpaceX Current Rocket Line Up
The Falcon 9
- The Falcon 9 is equipped with 9 merlin engines that are capable of delivering a payload of 22,800 Kg to LEO.
- The Ultimate goal is to have fully reusable rockets in the near future, meaning that the first and second stages will be able to land back on earth.
- Falcon 9 made history in 2012 when it became the dragon to the space station successfully, making SpaceX the first private company to do so.
Falcon Heavy
- The Falcon Heavy is made of 3 Falcon 9 engine cores which is 27 merlin engines.
- These 27 merlin engines are capable of bringing a payload of 54,400 Kg to LEO.
Tesla
With a blend of high tech gadgets and specs to make the car guys (or girls) crazy, Tesla destroys the stereotype of wimpy electric cars. Founded in 2003, a group of engineers first created the Tesla Roadster featuring a sport car drivetrain built around an AC induction motor patented in 1888 by the inventor Nikola Tesla. This first Tesla boasts an impressive 0-60 mph in just 3.7 seconds and reaching a distance of 245 miles on a single charge. After this first car, Tesla soon began developing many new and different styled cars. Tesla now has 3 cars in its lineup, with the Roadster no longer being in production
1. Tesla Model S :
- 0-60 in 2.5 seconds
- Electric AWD
- Sporty Sedan, mix family car with sports car
2. Tesla Model 3:
- More of the “Base Model”
- $35,000 price point makes it more affordable
- At least 215 miles on a single charge
- Still sporty and sleek
- Highest Safety Ratings possible
3. Tesla Model X:
- Family car of the future, High Tech
- With 3 possible options for battery and motor size, and added customization features the Tesla Model X’s cost ranges from $85,500 to $160,250
- “Falcon Wing” Doors; • Doors open up like wings, and function automatically, can open up in as little as 1 foot of clearance.
- Aerodynamic and Sleek SUV
- Seating for Seven + Gear
Model X Falcon Wing Doors Demo
Impact of Tesla
In this interview Elon talks about how he achieved so much and his thoughts on entrepreneurship. wants Tesla to Accelerate the Electric car market, and inspire other companies to improve Electric cars much like Tesla is improving them by making them appealing and available to everyone.
The two main resources that SolarCity uses to provide clean and affordable energy are solar shingles and the PowerWall
These two things work in harmony together in order to provide the user with clean energy at all times of the day.
The first component of this system is the solar shingles, these are average looking shingles that have the power of solar panels. The advantage of using this system is that aesthetically your roof looks no different than any other roof however it is providing more power than you would need in a day. On average the solar shingles provide two more megawatts of electricity than a home would need
Some examples of what these look like are:
The second system that SolarCity employs is the PowerWall.
This system is the battery of the solar energy process. As one would expect solar energy is only created during the time the sun is out so the big question was what to do when the sun wasn't such as during the nighttime or during a day with inclement weather. The solution was to create a device that can store and expend the energy at a high rate and thus the PowerWall was invented.
This image describes how and why PowerWall is a necessity. Without PowerWall any excess energy would be sent back to your power provider and unavailable to you at any other time. With PowerWall the system stores power to use at any time during the day or night allowing for a household to be completely off the main grid line of power.
SolarCity is still starting up and has the potential to become a major power provider in the future. As people move away from fossil fuels solar panels will become more and more necessary for life. The company is not in all 50 states yet but considering that it was founded in 2006 what they've been able to do is incredible.