Spacex
From SpaceX it is clear: you have to fly to the Red Planet on something. The company was founded in 2002 to create technologies to revolutionize the simplification and cheapening of space flights with the long-term goal of colonizing Mars.
- Purpose: to make humanity an interplanetary species.
Achievements: In 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to launch its own Dragon spacecraft into orbit and return it safely to Earth, and since 2012 has regularly sent "trucks" to the ISS. In 2015, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket made a soft landing, and in 2017 it was launched again. There have been 124 successful launches and 86 landings, 65 times SpaceX rockets have been reused. The Starlink global communications system orbital constellation is being deployed. The future huge manned spacecraft Starship, which is supposed to deliver people to Mars, and a super-heavy rocket to launch it, are being tested.
Tesla motors
There is no oxygen on Mars, which means that transport there can only be electric. That is why Tesla Motors was founded in Palo Alto, California in 2003. Musk took over the company in 2008, making it the world's largest automaker. Tesla Motors employs engineers who were involved in the creation of American Mars rovers.
- Goal: to make electric vehicles mass-produced.
Achievements: Almost 500,000 Tesla vehicles were sold worldwide in 2020. The production of four models has been launched, the Cybertruck SUV, the roadster and the Semi truck are being developed. Tesla Supercharger filling station network has more than 2,000 stations. The Tesla Autopilot unmanned control system is being tested and partially applied.
Tesla energy
The main source of energy on the red planet is electricity. It must be obtained and stored. For this purpose, Tesla acquired in 2016 a startup SolarCity (Fremont, Calif.), Which by that time was already one of the largest players in the US solar energy market. The original goal of the company was to dot the rooftops with solar panels that would fully cover households' electricity needs. The revolution made by SolarCity is that the decision to switch to solar energy has moved from a moral and ethical plane to a purely economic one.
- Goal: to accelerate the world's transition to renewable energy.
Achievements: Solar Roof system for generating electricity from rooftop batteries. Home battery Powerwall - the latest generation devices are capable of accumulating up to 13.5 kWh. Industrial-scale drives - Powerpack (232 kWh) and Megapack (3 MWh).
Hyperloop
There is practically no atmosphere on Mars, transport will have to move in almost a vacuum - hence the project of the Hyperloop vacuum train. The joint startup of teams from Tesla and SpaceX aims to develop vacuum trains, a high-speed form of transport that moves in highly rarefied air using magnetic levitation. It is planned that passengers will be able to cover the 560-kilometer route from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour at speeds up to 1200 km / h.
- Purpose: The train should be sufficient on rails alone.
Achievements: The first concept of Hyperloop was presented in 2013, and the technical documentation is open, third-party companies can participate in the project. Dozens of startups are involved in the work. An experimental kilometer-long tunnel was built in California to test capsule designs. To date, a speed of 463 km / h has been reached.
The boring company
On the Red Planet, most of the buildings will have to be removed underground, so in 2016 Musk spun off The Boring Company from SpaceX, which is engaged in technology for accelerating the construction of transport tunnels - primarily for future Hyperloop trains. The first tunnel, 4.6m deep, was dug at SpaceX's Hawthorne offices, as no permits were required to build the site.
- Purpose: solving the traffic problem, ensuring fast movement from point to point, transforming cities.
Achievements: our own tunnel boring machine, Prufrock, was developed and built. Curiously, the dimensions (3.7 m in diameter) make it possible to place it aboard the SpaceX Dragon ship. Experimental tunnels were built in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Several more projects in Los Angeles, Chicago and Baltimore are awaiting government approval.
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