Mr. Musk acknowledged that his target of sending a manned
spacecraft to Mars by 2022 was “aspirational,” but “fairly confident” by 2024,
and believes that his project is financially achievable as well. He intends to spend cash flow from SpaceX’s ongoing operations which are primarily launching
satellites for commercial customers and the Pentagon in order to build much
larger, more capable rockets by applying the company’s current technologies.
I am not sure whether space experts are right, or Elon Musk
is right. But I personally think it would be fantastic to see the moment human
beings stand on the surface of Mars as early as by middle of next decade as
people all over the world were excited to first see humans land on the Moon in the
Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
This is awesome! Elon Musk is surely bringing in ideas that seem too good to be true. It would interesting to see which ones succeed and which ones would have wouldn't. I am especially interested in the Hyperloop idea and the underground vehicle transportation one to improve transportation. He claims that the Hyperloop would travel between major cities within a few hours, making travel for pleasure and business an enjoyable experience. The underground vehicle transportation is also amazing in that cars would be taken underground and transported at high speeds and come back up to ground level to beat traffic. It is definitely a great time to be in the technology area/industry where disruption is the norm!
ReplyDeleteVery ambitious indeed. Elon Musk, in spite of space scientists, truly believes he can get this enormous task completed. I would have to side with Elon as being able to accomplish Mars travel by 2024, but side with the space experts on the time it takes to get to Mars as being a little bit longer than what Elon believes (3-6 months).
ReplyDeleteBased on a Fortune article, the industry involving satellites and space travel has been questionable in "...its ability to generate sufficient returns". Also, SpaceX "...will eventually need to go public to raise adequate capital (although the company said in May it had no current plans for an IPO)". An IPO to raise funds could create the possible of completing this Mars travel goal by 2024 and might be necessary to complete this goal; unless, SpaceX could "...provide cheap satellite-based Internet access to billions of people not currently online, generating over $1 trillion annually though service revenues and the expansion of e-commerce and digital advertising, f500linkJMorgan Stanley [/f500link]". This would give SpaceX the funds to complete the goal. However, "...the growth will require 20 years of successful development of new satellite networks..." and so even with revenues outside IPO, Elon Musk might need to do an IPO.
(http://fortune.com/2017/10/12/elon-musk-spacex-morgan-stanley/)
Elon Musk is one of the most influential people in recent years. He has a lot of ambition and is not afraid to take risks in order to further our knowledge and help out the environment. This is very intriguing and hope we could see astronauts reach Mars in the near future. Like Niharika said, I am also very interested in the Hyperloop idea from Washington DC to New York. This could open up so many doors for new business and our government. I have been following the Hyperloop idea and stock closely since the release of the idea, and Elon Musk says this could be built as soon as 2022 as well. Hopefully 2022 is a big year for new waves of technology due to these innovative ideas. Here is an article I found that may interest you.
ReplyDeletehttp://fortune.com/2017/10/20/elon-musk-hyperloop-tunnel-maryland/