Isaac Warren
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD – Elon Musk is a real life Tony Stark. The 44-year-old entrepreneur is the 39th richest person in the United States. Although Musk has not made a body armor suit, he has been responsible for many things that we use on a daily basis. From PayPal to SpaceX, Elon Musk has been inventing and investing for much of his life.
Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Transvaal, South Africa. When he was 10, he taught himself the computer language BASIC, and at age 12, he programmed a game, which he sold for $500 to a computer magazine.
Even in college, Musk’s entrepreneurial nature was showing. While attending the University of Pennsylvania, he and a friend of his bought a 10-bedroom fraternity house and turned it into a nightclub.
He was going to get a PHD in applied physics, but left after two days to begin exploring renewable energy, space, and business ideas on the internet.
After PayPal, Musk started Tesla Motors in 2003. The car company was named after the inventor Nikola Tesla. The company gained attention when it released the Tesla Roadster, which was the first completely electric sports car.
In 2015, Musk stated that he would like to see self-driving cars by 2018. He stated that his goal for the future of cars is to be able to summon your car from anywhere you are.
More recently, Musk has been investing in and working on a company called SpaceX. According to SpaceX’s website, the long-term goal is to “enable people to live on other planets.”
On December 22, 2015, SpaceX successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft into low orbit, and landed the rocket vertically on the launch site. This was the first time a rocket landed without either being destroyed, or rendered unusable. Eventually, NASA may not have to rely on Russia to transport U.S. crewmembers, or to resupply the ISS.
The future for Musk seems bright, as he already has ambitious plans to change transportation as we know it. In 2013, Musk announced an idea he had for a “high-speed ground transport system.” Calling it the Hyperloop, Musk claimed it would be capable of sending passengers across California in 30 minutes, traveling at a top speed of 700 miles per hour.
The Hyperloop is similar to the tube system used at banks, but much larger and on its side. The system would be powered via solar panels, and the passenger car would rely on skis and magnets to move. Cars would seat about 20 people.
Neither Tesla nor SpaceX have endorsed Musk’s idea, but SpaceX has opened a competition to the public. The competition ended on September 15, 2015. University students and independent engineering teams were to design the best Hyperloop pod, which would be tested on SpaceX’s testing fields.
Musk has planned on building a one mile Hyperloop as proof of concept. The tests are planned to be started by this summer.
In the next five years, America could see self-driving cars, and rockets that send tourists to space. A mars colony is no longer an idea found in Ray Bradbury books, but is slowly becoming more plausible. Elon Musk is paving a new road to the future for America. Everyday, new milestones are made in the technology field, and Musk is sure to be found close by.
Isaac Warren can be contacted at [email protected]