6 projects by Elon Musk that brought the future closer

1. Reusable Falcon rockets

In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX to allow ordinary people to fly into space and take the first steps towards colonizing other planets. If the second task seems too futuristic, then the company has already begun to implement the first one.

Musk proposed to reduce the cost of space flights by making the rockets reusable. This idea is not new, but SpaceX has succeeded in making carriers with a returnable first stage - the part of the vehicle with fuel that normally burns in the atmosphere when disconnected.

Success did not come immediately. The first three launches of Falcon 1 in 2006 turned out to be a failure, and it was not possible to return the first stage even after. Errors were taken into account in the design of Falcon 9. In 2016, the first successful landing of the stage on a small floating platform took place, and in 2017 it was re-launched into space. The third member of the family, the Falcon Heavy rocket, sent the Tesla Roadster towards Mars in February 2018.

Falcon rockets still cost hundreds of millions of dollars to launch, but Musk envisions that with the introduction of completely reusable rockets that only require refueling, that should change.

2. Dragon cargo spaceships

Dragon is a private transport ship developed by SpaceX to deliver cargo to the ISS. It has been in use since 2012.

Here SpaceX is also struggling for flight accessibility: Dragon has a one-piece structure and does not discard fuel tanks, batteries or other equipment while on the move. A modified version of Dragon 2 can be controlled manually: the pilots of the ship have the ability to more accurately land it on the landing pad.

SpaceX's successful rocket launches have proven that space exploration is not limited to state monopolies and international coalitions. And if they are interested, first of all, in obtaining benefits, then enthusiastic visionaries like Musk can afford to continue exploring the world beyond Earth's orbit simply because they are interested.

SpaceX isn't the only private space company. There is Orbital Science, Sierra Nevada Space Systems or, for example, the domestic "Lin Industrial", but in terms of scale and popularity outside the professional environment, they nevertheless lose. SpaceX is all right with this: it knows how to attract attention to itself through references to popular culture.

Recall that in the Tesla Roadster launched into space, David Bowie's song Space Oddity is playing, and the dummy is named Starman in honor of the composition of the same name. On the dashboard of the car, the inscription Don't Panic is lit - a reference to one of Musk's favorite works, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And SpaceX's floating platforms for landing the first stages are named with phrases from The Player Ian Banks - Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You.

Musk did not abandon the idea of colonizing Mars. SpaceX plans to conduct interplanetary expeditions in the 2020s with the as-yet-to-be-unveiled BFR launch vehicle and spacecraft. The BFR is also planned to be used to travel anywhere on Earth within an hour.

3. Tesla electric cars

The first electric cars appeared before internal combustion engines, and it is wrong to think of Musk as the inventor of battery-powered vehicles. But before Tesla, the market was empty: in 2002, almost all previously produced electric cars were seized from their owners and disposed of, as reported by manufacturers, due to the end of the battery life. In fact, the reasons were more banal: the ban on eco-cars, lobbied by the oil companies.

Electric cars of the 20th century were remembered as useless cars with strange designs: most of them looked frivolous, drove slowly, took a long time to charge, and barely made it to the nearest outlet. But in the 2000s, due to the rise in oil prices, the demand for electric vehicles reappeared, and then the time came for Tesla.

The company was not founded by Musk, but he brought a lot of ideas in terms of technology and design, became one of its main investors and the face of Tesla. He recently had to leave the chair of the board of directors due to allegations of stock fraud, but he continues to work for the company.

One of the principles of the new electric vehicles is uncompromising driving performance. For example, Tesla Model S in maximum configuration has a range of 500 km and can accelerate to 100 km / h in 2.7 seconds. This means that Tesla's electric cars can compete with gasoline-diesel cars on the racetrack.

Tesla emphasizes that electric vehicles are not a luxury. They are still expensive, but, for example, a Tesla Model 3 released in 2016 in the minimum configuration will cost about $ 40 thousand. That is how much an Audi A4 or BMW X2 could cost - expensive cars, of course, but still sold at the price of vehicles, not toys for oligarchs.

Tesla also develops and improves self-driving systems.

Musk's developments: unmanned control in Tesla

There are no absolutely reliable autopilots in vehicles yet, but in automatic mode Tesla correctly reads road markings and rebuilds to an adjacent lane when the turn signals are turned on.

4. Consumer solar panels

In 2006, Musk's cousins Peter and Lyndon Rivey launched SolarCity, a startup to build and install solar panels. Musk helped with the first capital - he (or rather, Tesla) later bought out the business of his cousins.

Tesla's most ambitious solar division project is the Solar Roof. So Musk called a system designed to fully provide American homes with electricity from solar panels. By design, such batteries are mounted on the roof: during the day they accumulate a charge, and at night they consume the energy remaining in the drives of a system called Powerwall.

Alas, it seems that reality has not changed, and ordinary Americans did not en masse install roofs with solar panels in their homes. The point is the cost: it depends on the coverage area, the complexity of the installation, the nuances of wiring and electrical appliances in the house, but in any case it is tens of thousands of dollars. Not everyone is ready to invest seriously now so that an economical solution will pay off in years.

5. Artificial intelligence that can beat Dota 2 champions

Here's what Elon Musk tweeted in August 2014.

Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.

Apparently, for this reason, Musk decided to start developing artificial intelligence on his own. The main principle of the OpenAI company he founded is openness and transparency of research and development. According to the creators, this is the only way artificial intelligence can benefit humanity, and not specific individuals. You can read about the developments on the official OpenAI website. They seem harmless. For example, here is a robotic arm looking for the required letters on a cube.

This spring, OpenAI bots defeated the Dota 2 OG team with a score of 2: 0. Before competing with the winners of The International 2018, the bots were "trained" on teams from Brazil and China. The advantage of AI was the ability to calculate the game for 8 minutes ahead and non-standard, but working tactics that ordinary players do not resort to.

There is little benefit to humanity from the fact of this victory, but such an experiment shows how diverse the application of AI can be in real life.

Musk also founded Neuralink, a company focused on the creation of interfaces implanted into the human brain. According to him, soon implants will help treat brain diseases, and someday - improve a person. We are afraid to suggest what this may mean, but so far the case, apparently, has not been launched: only vacancies have been published on the official website.

6. Underground tunnels with unmanned cars

The thought of underground tunnels came to Musk spontaneously: according to him, he just got bored in traffic. The idea seems equally obvious and at the same time impracticable, but Elon Musk looks at problem solving in a constructive way. He also has a lot of money. So he decided to dig an ultrafast tunnel between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The new startup was named The Boring Company.

To avoid traffic jams, they must become three-dimensional. You can make them like that either with the help of flying cars or with the help of underground tunnels. Unlike flying cars, tunnels are weatherproof, hidden from view and do not fall on your head.

Quote from The Boring Company mission

The system was named Loop. It's like a subway, only without stops and with cars plying at a speed of 240 km / h. The first such tunnel has already been laid: it opened in December 2018, but so far only for testing new technology. Tesla Model X drives on it.

Project Musk: Stopping at the Loop

A more ambitious idea is Hyperloop. These are also underground tunnels, but with a vacuum to overcome air resistance. The planned speed of transport in such tunnels is over 965 km / h.

And The Boring Company also shows that even the most progressive research has a place for humor. At the beginning of 2018, the company, for example, sold 20 thousand flamethrowers that will help in the fight against zombies.

Elon Musk did a lot of important things, for example, back in 1997 he patented the technology of audio communication between a computer and landline phones, and in 1998 - finding a place by geolocation. These patents prove once again that he was always one of the first to see innovations that soon entered our lives.