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| a fit human can generate perhaps . males. though. Musk and President Barack Obama at the Falcon launch site in Space X was awarded a contract NASA in to develop and test a new launch vehicle, Falcon , to transport cargo to the space station, followed by a . NASA contract on December , flights of its Falcon rock et and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, replacing the Space Shuttle after it retired in . Space X is one of two contractors in the Commercial Resupply Services program, which replaces the cargo transport function of the Space Shuttle. Astronaut transport to the ISS is currently handled solely by the Soyuz, but as of Space X is also one of two companies remaining in the Commercial Crew Development program, which is intended to develop a astronaut transport capability. Musk was influenced by Isaac Asimov s Foundation series Musk said that multiplanetary life may serve as a hedge against threats to the survival of the human species. An asteroid or a super volcano could destroy , and we face risks the dinosaurs saw an engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as yet unknown technology could spell the end of . Humankind evolved over s of years, but in the last sixty years atomic weaponry created the potential to extinguish ourselves. Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball or go extinct. His goal is to reduce the of human spaceflight by a factor of . Space X is both the largest private producer of rocket motors in the world, and holder of the record highest power to ratio any known rocket motor. In two years, Space X has produced more than operational Merlin D engines, currently the world s most powerful motor its . The relatively immense power to ratio allows each Merlin D motor to vertically lift the of average family cars. In combination, a set of the Merlin engines produces anywhere . to . s of thrust, depending on altitude. Tesla Motors Main article Tesla Motors The company was co founded by Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, JB Straubel, and Ian Wright. Following the financial crisis in , Musk observing an assembly demo at the reopening of the NUMMI plant, known as the Tesla Factory in Musk standing in front of a Tesla Model S in Musk and Senato r Dianne Feinstein next to a Tesla Model S Musk has favored building a sub , subcompact and building and selling electric vehicle powertrain components so that other automakers can produce electric vehicles at s without having to develop the products in house. To overcome the range limitations of electric cars, Musk said in an interview with All Things Digital in May that Tesla is dramatically accelerating their network of supercharger stations, tripling the number on the East and West coasts of the U. S. that June, with plans more expansion across North America, including Canada, throughout the year. Technology patents sharing Musk announced in a press release, conference and blog post on June , that the company will allow its technology patents to be ed by anyone in good faith in a bid to entice automobile manufacturers to speed up development of electric cars. The unfortunate reality is electric car programs at the major manufacturers are small to non existent, constituting an av erage of far less than of their total vehicle s, he said. Solar City Main article Solar City Musk provided the initial concept, and financial capital Solar City, which was then co founded in by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. The underlying motivation funding both Solar City and Tesla is to help combat global warming. On June , , Musk committed to building a Solar City vanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, that would triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Musk stated the plant will be one of the single largest solar panel production plants in the world, and it will be followed by one or more even bigger facilities in subsequent years. Hyperloop Main article Hyperloop On August , , Musk unveiled a proposal a new of transportation between the Greater Los Angeles area and the San isco Bay Area, after being disappointed with the approved California High Speed Rail system. The company Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has agreed to a with Quay Valley to build a mile Hyperloop track around the community. Construction is set to begin in . Philanthropy Musk speaking alongside Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny In Musk conceptualised Mars Oasis a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith, in an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration. Musk is chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on clean energy. In , the foundation created a program focused on donating solar power systems critical needs in disaster areas. The first such solar power was donated to a hurricane response center in Alabama that had been neglected by state and federal aid. To it clear that this program was not serving Musk s own commercial interests, Solar City noted that it had no presence or planned business activity in that state. In April , Musk joined The Giving Pledge, committing to donate the bulk of his fortune to philanthropic causes. In July , M usk was asked by cartoonist Matthew Inman and the great nephew of Nikola Tesla , to donate towards the construction of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, In January Musk donated M to the Future of Life Institute to run a global research program aimed at keeping artificial intelligence beneficial to humanity. As of , Musk is a Trustee of The X Foundation. Positions and opinions Politically, Musk has described himself as half Democrat, half Republican. In his own words I m somewhere in the middle, socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Musk had been a supporter of the U. S. political action committee FWD. us, which was started by fellow high profile entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg and vocates immigration reform. However, in May , Musk publicly withdrew his support in protest of vertisements the PAC was running that supported causes like the Keystone Pipeline. Musk and other s, including David Sacks, pulled out, criticizing the strategy as cynical. Musk has stated that he no l onger believes that the government should provide subsidies to environmentally ly companies, as was done with Tesla Motors, but the government should instead e a carbon tax to discourage bad behaviour . Musk argues that the market would achieve the best , and that producing environmentally unfriendly vehicles should come with its own consequences. Author and Stanford Professor Fred Turner responded by noting that if you re an entrepreneur like Elon Musk, you will take the where you can it, but at the same time believe as a matter of faith that it s entrepreneurship and technology that are the sources of social change, not the state. It is not quite self delusion, but there is a habit of thinking of oneself as a standing, independent agent, and of not acknowledging the subsidies that one received. And this goes on all the time in the Valley. When asked whether he believed there was some kind of destiny involved in humanity s transition to a multi planetary species, rather than just p hysics , Musk responded Well, I do. Do I think that there s some sort of master intelligence architecting all of this stuff I think probably not because then you have to say Where does the master intelligence come So it sort of begs the question. So I think really you can explain this with the fundamental laws of physics. You know its complex phenomenon simple elements. Musk has also stated that he hopes there is other intelligent life in the known universe. In his own words, intelligent life in the universe is probably more likely than not, but that s a complete guess. When asked about how he chooses which of the world s many s he will solve, he stated that he chooses whatever s he sees as most challenging to human survival, and those that present the most ant future developments humanity. Musk also stated that he often experiences dark dreams, which serve to motivate him, and that they are often in response to the level of stress he is experiencing. Personal life Musk owned a Mc L aren F supercar, which he crashed and wrecked while it was uninsured. Musk has been married three times, twice to the same woman. He met his first , Canadian author Justine Musk , while both were students at Ontario s Queen s University, Kingston. They married in and separated eight years later after having six sons, five of whom they share custody. Tosca Musk, Elon s sister, is the founder of Musk Entertainment and has produced various movies. though. the flight was witnessed by george washington. greeks spread grape growing and emaking throughout pe in ancient greece and roman times. |