Not content with living on our pale blue dot, Elon Musk, the multimillionaire who sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers in his late 20s wants to colonize Mars. Owner of Enterprises like Tesla, SpaceX and Solar City Musk is on fire right now.
SpaceX Musk’s own revolutionary space transport and exploration Services company aims at reducing space transportation costs and colonizing mars.It has developed several launch vehicles and spacecrafts which include the Falcon launch vehicle family and the Dragon spacecraft family, which both currently deliver payloads into Earth orbit.
Picture a 21st century Apollo spacecraft. After the troubled history of the space shuttle — including the loss of two seven-person crews — SpaceX and most other rocket companies have returned to the old model of the upright rocket with the crew perched on top of the stack. The Dragon which is configurable to seat up to seven people also consists of escape rockets, which are used to pull the ship away from the booster in the event of a fire or possible explosion.
On the other hand, Tesla Motors headed by Musk have been a pioneer in production of noise free and pollution free electric cars. The latest addition being the Tesla Model S which recently became the world’s fastest accelerating car. The Model S drives its power from an induction motor, inverter, lithium ion battery power source and above all the synchronised vehicle mechanism in a logical step by step manner.
In October 2014, Elon Musk’s electric-car company began rolling out sedans with a dozen ultrasonic sensors discreetly placed around both bumpers and sides and certain other major changes. It did in fact give drivers something similar to what airline pilots employ in flight. The car could manage its speed, steer within and even change lanes, and park itself. The self-steering was applied suddenly, overnight, via a software update, a giant leap toward full autonomy. Tesla customers, delighted, posted videos of themselves on the highway, hands free, reading the paper, sipping coffee, and even, once, riding on the roof.
The billionaire says he’s going to launch his own Tesla Roadster on the first test flight of SpaceX’s new giant rocket next month which shows his willingness and strong desire to convert his utopian dreams into reality soon enough.
On a concluding note, Tesla and SpaceX have been competing in extremely expensive industries dominated by enormous corporations and government entities, and their roads to success have not been easy. What really matters is the products he builds. If both companies stay on track, it will be a testament to Musk’s ability to convert seemingly utopian visions (with the help of a fortune made in the start-up industry) into models for a new world.
Written by- Samikshya and Pratyush Ranjan
