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02-07-2015
Biography of Elon Musk
Perhaps, any publication about new technologies has at least once written about the billionaire Elon Musk.
As a child, he decided to change the world and now he is confidently going to it.
Musk became the co founder of PayPal and the founder of Zip2, now he is completely immersed in the projects of SpaceX, Tesla Motors and Hyperloop.
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa.
His mother, Maya Musk, was a famous Canadian nutritionist, and his father, Eroll Musk, owned his own engineering business.
It was following the example of his father that Elon became an inventor, but this is not the only reason.
In an interview with the journalist Ashley Vance, who wrote his biography, he said that as a child he read a lot of comics about superheroes and wanted to change the world in the same way as his favorite characters did.
Musk got his first computer when he was 10 years old.
The boy is fond of programming, and at the age of 12 he sells his first Blastar game for $ 500.
Now this game can be played in the browser: it was restored thanks to the page with the code published in the biography "Elon Musk.
Tesla, SpaceX and the road to the future."
Ilon's childhood can hardly be called happy.
At school, he was disliked and regularly beaten.
Therefore, it is not surprising that at the age of 17, Elon Musk leaves South Africa and moves to Canada, where he receives citizenship and enters Queens University in Ontario.
Without completing his studies, he moves again two years later.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia with a bachelor's degree in economics and physics.
Later in California, Musk received a doctorate degree.
In 1995, together with his brother Kimbal, he created the company Zip2, which produces software for news publications.
In 1999, the company was bought by Compaq, and Musk received his first big money – $22 million, 7% of the sale amount ($307 million).
Elon Musk does not consider this a significant enough success and continues to invent.
Having sold Zip2, Musk is already completely absorbed in a new idea – to create an electronic transfer system that will compete with the usual "paper" payments, reducing the transfer time from several weeks to a couple of minutes.
The developing company absorbed Confinity, one of whose projects was PayPal.
Musk considered this system promising and started developing it.
X.com it was renamed PayPal.
But not everything was smooth: few people in the X.com I supported his idea to rename the company to PayPal, and by the decision of the board of directors, Musk was removed from office.
Nevertheless, Musk's expectations were met: already in 2001, PayPal became the main payment system on the eBay trading platform.
In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion, which brought Musk $165 million thanks to the shares he retained.
This money allowed the entrepreneur to move on: even at that time, he understood that his passion was space, and the idea of his whole life was the colonization of Mars.
Having received enough money to launch a new project, Musk does not hesitate: the next project should be related to space exploration.
So in 2002, SpaceX was born.
The company creates launch vehicles for transporting cargo and astronauts.
The goal of the Mask is to repeatedly reduce the cost of space transportation.
After three failed launches of the first Falcon 1 rocket, SpaceX was hanging by a thread; if the fourth launch was unsuccessful, the company could go bankrupt.
But history was favorable, the rocket safely put the cargo into orbit.
This was followed by a contract with NASA for $1.6 billion, which Musk signed in 2008.
According to the contract, since 2011, after the launch of the Space Shuttle, Falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft will make 12 launches to the ISS.
SpaceX will carry out cargo transportation exclusively, while the Russian Soyuz spacecraft will deliver astronauts to the station.
Musk was able to achieve success in such a complex business thanks to his versatile education: he understands not only technology, but also business, so he was able to occupy his niche in the field of space exploration.
Musk admits that the books of Isaac Asimov and the cycle of science fiction novels "The Foundation"had a great influence on his views on space.
The entrepreneur is sure that the only way for the continuation of the existence of mankind is the development of other planets.
He says that if dinosaurs were threatened only by natural asteroids, then people are threatened by technologies created by themselves.
"Sooner or later, our life will have to go beyond this blue green ball or we will die out."
No matter how important PayPal and SpaceX are, Musk gained worldwide fame after he joined Tesla Motors, which is engaged in the creation of electric vehicles.
Musk joined Tesla when the company turned one year old.
Financial investments (about $7.5 million) and Musk's genuine interest in electric vehicles have borne fruit: Tesla Motors is becoming an increasingly resounding name in the automotive market.
Musk takes part not only in the development of the car, but also holds the chair of the chairman of the board of directors of Tesla Motors.
Tesla electric cars are able to compete with many gasoline counterparts.
In fact, these are electric sports cars: they are distinguished by high speed, maximum maneuverability and the highest safety standards.
But Musk does not stop there and intends to continue improving his inventions.
The company's first car, the Tesla Roadster, was released in 2006.
It was a sports model, it was sold until 2012.
During this time, 2500 cars were produced.
The concept of the second car, the Model S, appeared in 2009, and sales began in 2012.
The Model S has become the most recognizable and popular model of Tesla Motors.
In the first month alone, 4,700 cars were sold, the electric car received the title of "Car of the Year"according to Motor Trend 2013.
The Tesla Model X, an improved version of the Model S, will go on sale in the second half of this year, and the Model 3 will be announced in March 2016.
The approximate price is around $35 thousand, the duration of one trip will be 320 km.
Tesla does not just create cars, but also develops the infrastructure for their use.
The company is building a factory for the production of batteries.
Also, throughout the United States, the company opens branded " superchargers – - stations for fueling cars with electricity.
You can charge the car for free (filling the battery up to 80% takes 40 minutes), but you can replace the battery with a fully charged one in just 1.5 minutes – although it will cost $60-80.
In Europe, "superchargers" will appear in 2016.
On August 12, 2013, Musk revealed his new project Hyperloop.
This is a project of a vacuum train that will be able to transport people and cargo 2 times faster than an airplane.
At the same time, the project should pay off in 20 years.
According to Musk, the Hyperloop is a cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.
The "Hyperpet" is a pipeline installed at a height of 20 meters above the ground, along which capsules with passengers will move.
The speed of such a capsule, 25-30 meters long, depends on the landscape and varies from 480 to 1220 km / h.
Transport will be safe and environmentally friendly, since it is planned to use solar energy.
The capsules will move like a subway, with minimal intervals, so as not to create crowds at the stations.
At first, Musk was not going to participate in the project, groups of enthusiasts began to gather around this idea, ready to implement the project.
However, later Elon Musk changed his mind and announced the construction of a trial road with a length of 8 kilometers.
This will not allow the capsules to reach the declared speed of 1300 km/h, since such a road is not enough for full acceleration and braking, but it will demonstrate the realism of the project.
The "Hyperpet" will be located in the city of the future Quay Valley (California).
It will immediately begin to transport real passengers, so the construction will pay off very quickly.
The developers of Quay Valley note that the "Hyperpet" is an ideal form of transport for the city of the future, aimed at environmental friendliness and liberation from car addiction.
Last year, Musk seriously worried about the education of his children.
"Schools are not doing what they should be doing," Musk says.
– During the training, it is important to tell students about the problem and how to solve it, and not just about the tools.
Roughly speaking, now, explaining the operation of the engine, the teacher will tell students everything about wrenches and screwdrivers.
Instead, you need to give the students an engine and ask them to disassemble it.
To do this, of course, you will need a screwdriver.
And this is a very important point: the need for tools becomes obvious, and all attention is focused on the task."
Based on these principles, Musk decided to open his own school.
He called it Ad Astra – "To the stars".
Now there are 14 children studying there, including the children of the inventor.
A distinctive feature of the school is the absence of classes.
Simply put, children of different ages can attend the same lessons.
At the same time, much attention is paid to the child's inclinations and their development.
This school is closed: it has neither a website nor a page in social networks, and children whose parents work at SpaceX study there.
Musk notes with a smile that children like to study: he remembers the school where he himself studied with dislike and does not want the same fate to befall his children.
Elon Musk is rightly called one of the most outstanding people of our time.
He has done a lot to make our world a better place, and there are undoubtedly many more great inventions ahead of him.
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