Elon Musk

Engineer, Explorer, Inventor born in 1971

South African entrepreneur Elon Musk is known for founding Tesla Motors and Space X, which launched a landmark commercial spacecraft in 2012.

Education

At age 17. in 1989, Elon musk moved to Canada to attend Queen's University and avoid mandatory service in South African military. He left in 1993 to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed for a second bachelor's degree in physics.

After leaving Penn, Elon Musk headed to Standford University in California to pursue Ph.D. in energy physics. However, his move was timed perfectly with the Internet boom, and he dropped out of Standford after just two days to become a part of lit, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation. An online city guide, Zip2 soon provided content for the websites of both The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. In 1999, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation bought Zip2 for $307
million in cash and $34 million in stock options.

PayPal

In 1992, Musk co-founded an online financial services/payment company. And in October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 million in stock. Before the sale, Musk owned 11 percent of PayPal stock.

Founder of SpaceX

Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. By 2008, SpaceX was well established, and NASA awarded the company the contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station - with plans for astronaut transport in the future - in a move to replace NASA's own space shuttle missions.

Falcon 9 Rockets

On may, 22 2012, Musk and SpaceX made history when the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule. The vehicle was sent to the International Space Station with 1000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts stationed there, marking the first time a private company had sent a spacecraft to the first time in history. Of the launch, Musk was as saying, "I feel very lucky ..... For us, it's like winning the Super Bowl."

In December 2013, a Falcon 9 successfully carried a satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit, a distance at which the satellite would lock into an orbital path that matched the earth's rotation. In February 2015, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 fitted with the deep space climate Observatory satellite, aiming to observe the extreme emissions from the sun that affect power grids and communication systems on Earth.

In March 2017, SpaceX saw the successful test flight and landing of a Falcon 9 Rocket made from reusable parts, a development that opens the door for more affordable space travel. 0The company enjoyed another milestone moment in February 2018 with the successful test launch of the powerful Falcon Heavy Rocket. In July, SpaceX enjoyed the successful landing of a new Block 5 falcon Rocket, which touched down on a drone ship less than 9 minutes after liftoff.

Founder and CEO of Tesla

Elon Musk is the co-founder, CEO and product architect at Tesla Motors, a company decided to produce an affordable, mass-market electric car as well as battery products and solar roofs. Five years after its formation, in 2008, the company unveiled the Roadster, a sports car capable to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, as well traveling nearly 250 miles between charges of its lithium-ion battery. Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering in June 2010, raising $226 million.

The restructuring appeared to pay dividends, as it was announced that Tesla had met its goal of producing 5000 model 3 cars per week by the end of June while churning out another 2000 Models S sedan and Model X SUVs. "We did it!" Musk wrote in a celebratory email to the company. " What an incredible job by an amazing team."

Hyperloop

In August 2013, Elon Musk released a concept for a new form of transportation called "Hyperloop", an invention that would foster commuting between major cities while severely cutting travel time. ideally resistant to weather and powered by renewable energy, the Hyperloop would propel rides in pods through a network of low-pressure tubes at speeds reaching more than 700 mph. Musk noted that the Hyperloop could take from seven years to 10 years to be built and ready for use.

Although he introduced the Hyperloop with claims that it would be safer than plane or train, with an estimated cost of $6 billion - approximately one-tenth of the cost for the rail system planned by the state of California.

AI - Artificial Intelligence

Elon Musk has pursued an interesting in Artificial Intelligence, becoming co-chair of the nonprofit Open AI. The research company launched in late 2015 with the stated mission of advancing digital intelligence of benefit humanity. In 2017, it was revealed that Musk was backing a venture called Neuralink, which intends to create devices to be implanted in the human brain and help people merge with software.

Boring company

In January 2017 Elon Musk sudden decided he was going find a way to reduce traffic by devoting resource to boring and building tunnels. he launched his venture, named" The boring Company," with a test dig on SpaceX property in Los Angeles. In late October, Musk posted the first photo of his company's progress to his Instagram page. He said that 500-foot tunnel, which would generally run parallel to Interstate 405, would reach a length of two miles in approximately four months.