Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and a revolutionary in the field of commercial space flight, was born in South Africa and grew up teaching himself how to program and sold his first computer game at the age of 12 called Blaster. He moved to Canada to attend Queen's University and later attended University of Pennsylvania to study business and physics. He dropped out of attaining Ph.D in energy physics at Stanford University to pursue the Internet boom in the mid-nineties. From there, launching his career in business from Zip2 Corporation to Paypal and every enterprise funding the next. In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX and in 2008 NASA awarded him with a contract to ship cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Thus, in 2012 Musk successfully launched the first commercially owned space craft to the ISS proving that privately owned companies could succeed in space exploration.
Now Elon Musk is developing reusable rockets to be able to send cargo safely and cheaply. The video describes the plan for the development of Falcon Heavy which is a three core rocket designed to launch geostationary satellites as well as carry large loads to the ISS. Here is the link to a detailed animation of the rocket and its design http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy.
Grondin, Yves-A. Musk Lays Out the Plans for Reusability of the Falcon 9 Rocket. (October 3, 2013). Retrieved 11:12, Apr 29, 2015, from http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/10/musk-plans-reusability-falcon-9-rocket/
ReplyDeleteThe video was a great representation of the rocket and its launch. Elon Musk sound like he is a genius. Inventing a computer game at 12 years of age is an accomplishment. An even bigger accomplishment is developing multiple corporations. He is a good example of developing a corporation so that it can contribute to space exploration. Now that private companies can succeed in space exploration, can people pay to go up to space? Would the average working man or women be able to explore space? How is the rocket reusable?
Elon Musk is probably what the great majority of people dream of becoming. Born with an incredible mental capacity, he attended a couple of the top colleges in the world, and is now a young billionaire and CEO of big companies. He has created several successful companies as well. Who wouldnt want to have a curriculum like this guy has?
ReplyDeleteI think the important lesson to take from his example is how an individual can use its resources to have an impact for the better of human kind.
Well, he is definitely a source of inspiration for me and the dream is of course to get to the same level.
It seems that spaceX can pave the way for other privately owned corporations. Private corporations could provide additional funding towards space exploration as a whole. Increased success in space exploration could lead to government funding. With even more funding, space tourism could be a thing
ReplyDeleteIt is so neat to know that someone sold a computer game at such a young age; I guess he really knew what he wanted to do. When I was that age I was playing with my friends and bugs outside, I had no idea what I wanted to do. There is someone sending cargo to the international space station by an individual founded space exploration company?? I find this so neat because they are helping NASA and space exploration. I need to look up this company SpaceX and see what other projects they are working on, including the reusable rockets.
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