[Epoch Times November 06, 2021]In the past few days, technology celebrity Elon Musk published an ancient Chinese poem “Seven Step Poem”, which has successfully triggered heated discussions among Chinese and Western netizens. In terms of the meaning of the “Seven Steps”, almost all women and Confucianists know what Musk wants to use. Although there are different opinions, it is still difficult to guess. Some Western netizens even say that this is just a recipe.
Musk is not only a big tech man, but also the richest man in the world. He has tens of millions of fans on social media, so his tweets often cause controversy. For example, one of his tweets can affect the price of Bitcoin; he said that the pyramid is It was built by aliens and immediately attracted protests from the Egyptian government; he said that Tesla’s stock price was too high and immediately evaporated Tesla’s market value by $14 billion…
It can be said that every word and deed of Musk will become a global hot spot, so we will join in the fun today and talk about Musk.
Musk’s life is like a realistic version of Iron Man. At the age of 12, Musk sold a space game of his own design for $500. Many people may have heard that Musk is a dropout like Bill Gates. Yes, at the age of 24, Musk gave up his PhD and developed Zip2 with his younger brother. It was acquired 4 years later and Musk won Profit 20 million euros, and for the knowledge of going to school, Musk once said in an interview that he went to university just to play more.
At the age of 28, Musk and his partners founded PayPal, which was later acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion. Musk made a steady profit of US$160 million. With this money, Musk began his super dream of “rewriting human history.” .
By the age of 31, Musk could not wait to invest in space technology and established a Space X space company. The “Falcon 9” carrier rocket produced by SpaceX has also become a very important invention in the history of human aviation. , Is the first liquid fuel launch vehicle in history that can repeatedly use the first stage thruster, overturning the previous understanding that the launch vehicle can only be used for one time.
At the age of 33, Musk invested in Tesla and became the world‘s earliest manufacturer of self-driving cars. In addition, Musk has successively established solar energy companies, as well as companies that develop technologies that connect human brains and computers, and so on.
When Musk was still in college, he wanted to get involved in three areas, the Internet, renewable energy, and space. He believes that these will profoundly affect the future of mankind, and Musk has indeed realized his dream quickly, and at the same time, he also created The new dream of mankind.
Some people say that the companies created by Musk have a common purpose, that is, to allow humans to immigrate to Mars. Then let’s take a look at his companies.
Sending humans to Mars-Space X
Musk believes that if humans are limited to one planet, it is very dangerous. He believes that sooner or later, humans will be destroyed by a catastrophe, which may be caused by an asteroid hitting the earth, or a super volcanic eruption, or a nuclear war, or It was a great plague.
Musk has publicly stated on many occasions that in order to continue human life, humans need to become a multi-planet species.
In 2001, 30-year-old Musk wanted to launch a small plant-growing laboratory to Mars in order to attract public interest in space exploration. He tried to buy rockets from Russia, but returned empty-handed because of the high prices. On the return flight, Musk had an idea to create a company that manufactures cheap rockets so that humans can immigrate to Mars.
In 2002, Musk established the SpaceX space development company. He tied multiple small rockets together into a large rocket, which not only greatly reduced the cost, but also the small rockets can also be recycled. In the end, SpaceX can reduce the rocket launch price to one tenth, and still has a 70% gross profit margin.
In just 6 years, Space X designed, manufactured and launched the world’s first privately-invested rocket, the Falcon 1. In 2010, Space X sent the Cargo Dragon spacecraft into low-Earth orbit for the first time and successfully recovered it. .
In November last year, SpaceX “Manned 1” sent the first four passengers to the International Space Station, marking the beginning of commercial spaceflight. Today, SpaceX has the ability to manufacture, launch, recover, and reuse launch vehicles, and can launch manned spacecraft and satellite systems into various orbits. It can be regarded as the world‘s leading private aerospace company.
Energy on Mars-SolarCity
After the success of the manned spacecraft, there is still a problem to be solved-energy. There is no oxygen, oil, or coal on Mars, but there is the sun. Musk established SolarCity in 2008 to provide solar energy services and provide electricity to customers at a price lower than that of the power company.
On December 4, 2013, SolarCity announced the launch of a smart energy storage system using Tesla battery technology, which can store electricity to meet peak demand, thereby reducing energy costs, and at the same time, it can be used when power is off. backup power. Today, SolarCity has become the number one supplier of solar power generation systems in the United States.
Vehicles on Mars-Tesla
It is conceivable that the vehicles on the earth that are mainly internal combustion engines cannot be used on Mars, but Tesla’s electric cars can.
In 2004, Musk invested in Tesla. However, before entering this company, Musk was very interested in electric vehicles. It is said that his purpose of the Ph.D. examination was to develop supercapacitors that can provide enough energy for electric vehicles.
In 2008, Musk, who became Tesla’s CEO, led the design of the electric car Roadster, which was the first car to use lithium-ion batteries and the first electric car that could travel more than 200 miles after charging. This sports car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.7 seconds. In 4 years, Tesla sold more than 2,250 Roadsters in 31 countries. However, Tesla’s goal is to provide electric vehicles that are affordable to ordinary consumers. Therefore, Musk’s plan is to first produce high-priced, very niche electric sports cars, and then use the money earned to produce lower-priced cars, which are model s and model x.
Then use the earned money to produce lower-priced cars, such as model 3, model Y, and pure electric pickup cybertruck. In the end, when Tesla is used by the general public, it will be able to replace new energy sources.
In addition to electric vehicles, coupled with the cooperation of SolarCity solar panels, Tesla’s entire sustainable development industrial chain has been established.
In October of this year, Hertz, the largest car rental company in the United States, decided to order 100,000 Tesla cars by the end of 2022, indicating that electric cars are no longer a niche product and will dominate the Volkswagen car market in the near future. This news also caused Tesla’s stock price to soar by 14.9%, and Tesla has become the world‘s most valuable automaker.
In addition to cars, Musk also envisioned the Hyperloop, which allows trains to travel on magnetic levitation rails powered by solar energy in pipelines close to vacuum, faster than trains and airplanes. In November last year, the Virgin Hyperloop completed its first manned test run. The carriage with two passengers drove through a 500-meter-long test pipeline, and it only took 15 seconds to reach the end. . Although it is still far from the target of 1,000 kilometers per hour, it is one step closer to achieving the goal.
It has to be said that what Musk has done is a major event that affects the progress of human science and technology. After solving the energy, traffic and transportation problems, the next step is communication. In 2015, Musk announced the launch of a well-known space Internet project, the Starlink Project. SpaceX said that by 2024, 12,000 micro-satellites will be launched into space and will be used to build a space base covering the world. the Internet. Moreover, Musk also hopes to use it on Mars and deploy communication infrastructure throughout the solar system to achieve interstellar communication. As of September this year, SpaceX has launched 1,791 satellites, realizing the initial networking capability.
At the same time, Tesla is also preparing to launch a mobile phone. According to the website, this phone has the function of connecting with Starlink and brain-computer, with solar panel charging, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, and high-speed photography. It may also be bound to control Tesla cars.
Looking at it this way, Musk can move vertically and horizontally in the sky and underground, and Musk’s products seem to be suitable for use on Mars, with a strong Mars complex. In fact, everyone knows that Musk himself joked on Twitter that he is a Martian.
Musk also said that in 2024, SpaceX’s interstellar spacecraft may land on Mars, and by 2050, he expects the company to build a city with 1 million inhabitants on Mars. Musk also said that he wanted to die on Mars, but not from the impact. In addition, at the 2021 shareholder meeting, Musk also expressed his hope that the first Tesla factory can be built on Mars before his death.
In February of this year, an Indian entrepreneur asked Musk on Twitter, how can he own so many large companies at such a young age and still switch freely among these completely different companies?
Musk tweeted in reply: “I am an alien.” In fact, many people think that Musk is an alien or a future man, because his ideas are too advanced and what he does is good for humans. have a great impact. Some people even say that he has drawn closer to the future of mankind.
Of course, in the eyes of the public, Musk, who is walking in the cutting-edge field of high technology, is already at the forefront of exploring other planets. However, the universe is too vast and mysterious, and the knowledge we humans have is still very limited. Perhaps in the future, whether Musk or the general public, we will have a broader mindset and discover a broader world in the understanding of the universe, time and space, and the human body.
Sober “lunatic”
As you can see, many times, Musk’s ideas are very crazy. For example, most people will not do the rocket, because the probability of success is too low and the cost is too high. Musk once said that in the early days, he knew his success rate was only 10%, but it was worth a try anyway.
In 2002, Musk made $160 million in the PayPal acquisition. In the same year, Musk founded SpaceX with 100 million U.S. dollars and invested 6.3 million U.S. dollars in Tesla in 2004.
Both companies almost went bankrupt in 2008. SpaceX’s Falcon 1 is the first reusable rocket. It failed to reach orbit in the first three launches, and only the last money was left. Fortunately, the fourth launch was successful. Later, the company won a $1.6 billion contract from NASA.
In the same year, Tesla was also seriously underfunded and faced production problems when the Tesla Roadster was first released. But Tesla eventually received investment, was able to maintain operations, and went public in 2010.
From these things, it can be seen that Musk’s heart is really strong enough. It is not a fearless person who is ignorant, but is fully aware of the consequences and can face failure calmly. Therefore, Musk is described as a “conscious lunatic.” “. And Musk’s business philosophy has also opened up many entrepreneurs and inspired more and more novel business models. But for Musk, making money may be just a tool. He doesn’t love money. He may just be pure. He wants to use money to realize his space dream and go to Mars.
However, no matter how smart Musk is, there are times when he can’t see clearly. For example, Tesla has set up factories in China. In the past two years, there have been constant disturbances. However, driven by Tesla’s market, the electric car manufacturers in mainland China have developed rapidly. It’s too choppy to escape the fate of “big leeks”. I wonder if Musk’s “Why is it too eager to fry” in Chinese this time also implies the “big leeks”?
Institute of Finance and Economics
Planning: Yu Wenming
Written by: Chen Siyu
Editor: Wei Ran, Yu Wenming
Editing: Songs
Producer: Wen Jing
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