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How to watch Elon Musk’s Starship presentation live

The presentation is expected to start at 9pm et.

By Loren Grush

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This evening, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will give a presentation about his company’s next generation Starship system — a massive new rocket that SpaceX has been developing over the last few years to take humans to the Moon and eventually Mars. It’ll be Musk’s first presentation on the vehicle since 2019 and his fifth one overall since 2016.

Starship is by far SpaceX’s most ambitious project to date. The design calls for a giant spaceship and rocket combo that would be more powerful than the Saturn V rocket that took humans to the Moon. Starship, the passenger part of the vehicle, is meant to launch to space on top of a gargantuan booster rocket known as the Super Heavy. Starship is supposed to be capable of landing on the surface of the Moon and back on Earth, while Super Heavy is also meant to land itself back on Earth, making the entire system reusable.

HOW DO I WATCH ELON MUSK’S STARSHIP PRESENTATION?

SpaceX will be livestreaming Musk’s presentation on its YouTube channel here (and we’ve also embedded the livestream above).

WHAT TIME DOES THE SPACEX LIVESTREAM START?

Musk said the presentation would begin at 8PM Central time, but given his record on past performances, it’d be wise to give that start time some padding.

Scheduled start time:  New York: 9PM / San Francisco: 6PM / London: 2AM / Berlin: 3AM / Moscow: 5AM / New Delhi: 7:30AM / Beijing: 10AM / Tokyo: 11AM / Melbourne: 1PM

WHAT WILL ELON TALK ABOUT?

SpaceX and Musk have provided little detail about what exactly will be discussed during today’s update, but there are a few items that seem likely to come up. Perhaps the most pressing topic is the Federal Aviation Administration’s ongoing review of SpaceX’s proposed launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas — the site of Musk’s talk.

SpaceX is very eager to launch its Starship vehicle to orbit from the Texas location. It’s the primary place where SpaceX has been building prototypes of the rocket, and it’s the place where the company has conducted a few high-altitude test flights of the vehicle. But in order to go orbital from Texas, the company first needs the green light from the FAA. The agency is responsible for issuing licenses for rocket launches to orbit, to ensure they don’t damage uninvolved people or property.

The FAA is now considering whether to give Starship a license to launch out of Boca Chica

The FAA originally conducted a review of the Boca Chica site back in 2014, creating a full environmental impact statement, or EIS, that looked at how the facility might affect the surrounding area (which is notably part of a wildlife refuge). The assessment didn’t find any major problems, but that was back when SpaceX proposed launching its much smaller Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets out of Boca Chica. SpaceX has abandoned the idea of launching its Falcon vehicles from the facility now, and is only focused on launching Starship there. Meanwhile, the proposed launch site has significantly expanded in scope, and even includes major modifications like a natural gas plant for pretreating methane , one of the main propellants needed for Starship’s primary Raptor engines.

The FAA is now considering whether to give Starship a license to launch out of Boca Chica. As part of that decision-making process, SpaceX provided a draft assessment detailing what it plans to do with the site in the future. When that assessment was released, the FAA invited the public to give their opinions on the proposal and received a whopping 18,000 public comments. The opinions ranged from extreme enthusiasm for the project to harsh criticism, with some critics calling for the FAA to conduct another EIS based on SpaceX’s proposed updates. And it’s possible the FAA may do that. The agency can come up with one of three findings: that SpaceX’s updates will have no significant impact on the area, that SpaceX must take certain steps to mitigate its impact on the surrounding area, or that the FAA must conduct another EIS, a process that could take many months or even years as the agency interviews more people, collects more data, and does extensive research in cooperation with other federal agencies like NASA.

The FAA said it should make its decision by the end of February. The decision was initially supposed to be finalized by late December, but it’s taken both the FAA and SpaceX considerably more time than expected to respond to the sheer volume of public comments. With that February deadline coming up, the timing of Musk’s presentation this month doesn’t feel like a coincidence. Musk has a history of putting public pressure on the FAA when the regulator doesn’t make the decisions he likes with regards to his rocket launches. It’s possible the FAA might come up tonight, and if not, it will certainly be the elephant in the room.

Musk may also give updated timelines for Starship milestones, which he usually does during these presentations. Past timelines have always been incredibly aspirational and, in hindsight, unrealistic. During his last presentation in September of 2019, Musk said SpaceX was going to try to launch Starship to orbit within the next six months . Clearly, that didn’t happen. Musk’s latest prediction in November for Starhip’s orbital launch was January or February , but given the FAA’s decision timetable, March is the absolute earliest plausible timeframe — and that’s if the federal agency’s decision comes down in SpaceX’s favor. It also remains to be seen if SpaceX is actually ready for a March launch.

Timelines have always been incredibly aspirational

There’s also the topic of SpaceX’s ongoing partnership with NASA. Last year, the space agency awarded SpaceX $2.9 billion to develop Starship as a human lunar lander that can take NASA astronauts to and from the surface of the Moon in support of its Artemis program. As of now, NASA is aiming to conduct its first human landings with Starship as early as 2025, though that date is also considered fairly aspirational. Any updates on NASA and SpaceX’s working relationship would be useful.

One thing that would be nice for Musk to talk about is any updated plans for human survival on Starship . Most of the presentations in the past have revolved around the impressive specs and mechanics of the vehicle, while Musk usually brushes aside questions about life support systems, radiation shielding, and other technology related to human comfort. But Starship is primarily a passenger vehicle, and those sorts of technologies are going to become necessary as SpaceX makes its way through the development process.

However, Starship isn’t just intended for human use. SpaceX also has grand plans to use the spacecraft to launch its next generation satellites for its Starlink project, a massive mega-constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit designed to provide broadband internet services to the ground below. SpaceX filed an updated license with the Federal Communications Commission last year to launch its upgraded, larger Starlink satellites on Starship. And a recent email from Musk to the company indicated that Starship is pretty vital to Starlink’s overall success .

As for updates on the vehicles themselves, it’s hard to know what Musk could say that isn’t known already. SpaceX’s operations in Boca Chica have become fairly public, as teams of enthusiasts have started camping out around the facility, livestreaming views of daily operations there. Perhaps Musk has something new up his sleeve, but it’s pretty hard to keep secrets at the facility these days.

If nothing else, the presentation should have a fairly impressive display. SpaceX has fully stacked its latest Starship prototype on top of a Super Heavy booster for the talk’s backdrop. Though it might be hard to get the full vehicle in the shot.

Update February 10th, 7:39PM ET : Added link to the livestream.

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Elon Musk’s Top 10 Most Influential Presentations

If one has to draw comparisons between Tesla chief Elon Musk and Marvel Comics heartthrob Tony Stark, chances are they will come up with an endless list. And why wouldn’t they? The 49-year-old technology entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist, who recently joined the league of centibillionares, might as well just push a button on his watch and turn into an iron suit-clad man in front of an arena full of tech business representatives and customers.

While as much as the Silicon Valley has magnetized towards all that Elon Musk has to offer, his growing net worth has come from a personality and competitive skill that only few have been able to accomplish as CEOs or investors of startups and corporations alike.

However, if there is a product or company that Musk has gotten behind, it has done more than just adding value to the customer or offering a futuristic service. It has catapulted the thoughts of ordinary humans into those of extraordinary beings capable of doing more without putting in much effort.

And how has the world been introduced to these revolutionary products? With a presentation by Musk, of course! Keeping up with the trend of product unveil that tech giants leverage to grow their audience, Elon Musk has offered the future to the people with a giant thought-provoking presentation regarding every milestone he has been able to achieve (or create). For instance, the recipe to bring Tesla to life (and to over 400 billion dollar market valuation recently) has taken grit, passion, and (obviously) Elon Musk himself uncovering the wonders that the company was able to create with an inspiring presentation.

Notably, however, if one observes Elon Musk as he stands on the stage and rolls out another fascinating marvel using just his words, they would find his presenting style to be something that public speaking gurus might feel at odds with. And yet the occasional and eventual stutter just does not seem to fade Musk’s presentation at all. Instead, it is something that builds up his presentation quotient to an evocative level, something that implores the audience want to have a piece of what is on the shelf of Musk Inc. We break down 10 such presentations and Elon Musk’s USP in each of them in this blog.

Top 10 presentations with which Elon Musk made a mark

1. neuralink.

We are starting off with a bang. Imagine an amalgam of artificial intelligence (AI) and humans. If this seemed like a scene from a sci-fi movie to you, then you may be in for a surprise. With Neuralink, a system of 4x4mm microchips installed into a human brain to carry out neural and limbic functions on machines, Elon Musk gives us the option to merge with AI as per our choice. In fact, the idea behind developing Neuralink is to provide a third layer of super-intelligence that is not hindered by the use of thumbs on the device screens.

Working with the basic principles of neuroscience, Musk has come up with a digital synapse as happens between the neurons in our brains for any type of functionality. In the presentation for the launch of Neuralink, Musk explains how the interspersed communication between neural entities can be tapped using microscopic electrodes that are fitted into the microchip.

Not only that, Neuralink aims to address brain and spinal cord issues by helping neurosurgeons collect data from the microchips, an aspect that tends to enable differently-abled people to move and heal with their minds in a literal sense. In fact, in the recent development at Neuralink, developers have been able to graph neural signals using a coin-sized chip in a pig’s brain . Making waves sure comes easy when coupled with a presentation like that.

Presentation USP: He gives the audience a show

A prominent theme in Elon Musk’s presentation for something as ambitious as Neuralink is starting with something eye-catching, mostly a video. For Neuralink, for instance, the presentation spans how the product will enable an interface of the machine and the mind with recurrent moving shots of doctors and engineers. The video then shows how something as basic as a synapse in the brain forms the foundation of the product. As for Musk, the presenting begins in his own style for an audience that has been gripped by what is offered by that teaser video.

2. Tesla Energy

If solar is the future of our energy needs, this presentation by Elon Musk cements the fact that there will be a paradigm shift in the way we utilize sunlight. Musk explains with Tesla’s Powerwall will harness the energy from sun rays and transform our needs to have sources of energy generation. In fact, with Powerwall, Tesla has projected to take the United States of America to a zero-carbon electricity situation. And that too by using nothing but rooftops of homes.

Musk explains how fossil fuel energy makes a detrimental impact and how solar power, a completely harmless and non-polluting source of energy, stays underutilized. That is what Tesla Power is about. Area-wise too, the Powerwall makes it possible to achieve that transition by using batteries over a piece of land the size of a pixel as compared to the area of the entire United States. As the presentation moves ahead, Musk explains how it is a scalable solution for energy needs in remote inaccessible areas. Not having electricity lines and being able to run an entire house on solar power? Quite an ingenious feat!

Presentation USP: He keeps the humor quotient intact (without overdoing it)

Not that Musk did not give the audience the show they came for, he actually blew their mind away by showing the Tesla Powerwall in action. In fact, he wows the audience with the fact that the entire building where the presentation was being conducted was running on solar energy after all. The highlight of the presentation, however, stays that he engages the audience with the occasional humor or a chuckle while keeping the minds hooked about the product.

Notice in the video how he just calls the sun a “handy fusion reactor in sky” and elicits laughter from the attendees. The USP here is that he makes the audience feel comfortable and, thus, inclined towards actually listening what he has to say. Something to take a note of while charming the audience in your next pitch meeting.

3. Tesla Cybertruck 

Tesla’s innovation drive has stayed unparalleled over the years. Battery-powered automotives of the future have been calling out to potential customers and investors of the company from time to time. Another presentation by Elon Musk, which has made an impact in the minds of these stakeholders, features the super-rugged Tesla Cybertruck. With this presentation Musk has given us a kaleidoscope to view the otherwise ordinary objects with a technologically advanced angle.

In the presentation, Musk elucidates how the Cybertruck is the more futuristic take on the run-of-the-mill trucks that run on fossil fuels. Tesla has manufactured the Cybertruck in single, double and tri-motor configuration for flexible performance and power. Aesthetically, it looks something straight out of a Transformers movie. The vehicle also boasts of cold-rolled stainless steel and Tesla Armor glass, while the bulletproof body (capable of taking quite the beating of a sledgehammer and a 9mm bullet) along with the demonstration fired up the audience to shout “Take my money”, “I love it” and so on and so forth. Besides the truck, Elon Musk also took the opportunity to showcase another hi-tech means of electric transport — an ATV meant as an off-road bike which can be loaded to the back of the Cybertruck via a built-in ramp.

Presentation USP: He bounces back well

Coming to the most talked about aspect of this presentation, one thing that set the world (and the internet) on fire was when a demonstrator on the stage was asked by Musk to throw metal balls at the glass windows of the Cybertruck. The demonstrator did and the glass broke, though the ball did not go through. The demonstrator tried it on the rear window. Same results!

Even though just minutes before Musk had demonstrated how tough the Tesla Armor is through an experiment using the metal ball from above, here’s where his unique ability as a presenter came through. “May be that was a little too hard,” said Musk with chuckles from the audience. And then he says, “We’ll fix it in post.” More laughter! Here one can learn to tide over mistakes and not let it bother you. When Musk says tough, he means it.

4. Tesla Semi Truck 

With every product that Elon Musk has fathomed, almost every industry, especially the electric vehicles industry, has benefitted from it tremendously. With mass transportation and smart logistics gaining traction, Tesla has also tapped into the potential of electric vehicles for goods transportation with the Tesla Semi truck. During the presentation, Musk elaborates how the beast is capable of giving traditional diesel engine trucks a run for their money. Designed like a bullet to achieve low drag coefficient, the Tesla Semi is capable of achieving 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5 seconds without the load.

Musk also explains how the truck offers the driver a racecar experience with just a single gear and spacious interior. He also threw light on how Tesla megachargers, with solar energy as the primary source, can get the vehicle charged while you take a break from your journey. Musk also highlighted how the truck is capable of safety positioning, avoiding jackknifing and alerting emergency services when needed, something that truckers and manufacturers take interest in alike.

Presentation USP: He lets visuals speak for the data

No doubt, the Tesla Semi is a reflection of the genius of Elon Musk. The presentation, however, also puts a spotlight on how the PayPal founder lays emphasis on representing data with mind probing animations. For instance, he offers the audience a perspective of how good the Tesla Semi is by using an animated model going up a speed bar against a diesel truck. Though he also uses humor to highlight how painfully slow the diesel vehicle is, he enables the audience to retain the 0-60mph bit with a visual. Another bite of perspective is when he pitted the Cybertruck against a Porsche 911 in a race. He builds upon a quality of the product with a good visual. And he knows how to do it well.

5. SpaceX Starship 

Speaking of doing things well, Elon Musk has gone bigger and better with every product launch presentation he has ever given. SpaceX, a rocket and spacecraft manufacturing company of which Musk is the founder, had built the Starship, a spacecraft that is aimed at taking humans among the stars and making them “glad to be alive”. The presentation shows what it is like to usher into the future where space travel is like air travel. You just grab your cargo and stuff and make a round-trip to the Moon or Mars, all in that magnificent spacecraft.

And of course, how did Musk capture that magnificence? Outside in the open on a huge airbase for rocket launch, of course! Aligned with the magnitude of Elon Musk’s vision of space exploration, the presentation also includes a display on the Falcon 1 rocket that was able to get launched successfully, paving the way for interplanetary travel.  More so, Musk explains how one can travel 25 times the speed of sound with the help of the space vehicle and feel just the acceleration during the commute.

Presentation USP: He believes in the product

If one looks at the presentation from a public speaker’s point of view, they will find Musk using a lot of filler words for describing what he has conceived as humans’ gateway to Mars. But all that is outweighed by the fact that no matter the size of the product that he is presenting, Musk knows what goes where inside out. He stays focused on keeping the audience engaged with the right amount of data to make it credible, no matter how ambitious.

In fact, the SpaceX Starship mission, Musk has said, is moving at a good progress rate, barring the delay in schedule for test flights . During the presentation, Musk also gives audience a video demo of how the Starship fires up while later juxtaposing it with another space vehicle called Starhopper. The whole process so mesmerizing that the audience jeers and claps. And yes, that will soon be the sound for man starting a new life on Mars too.

6. Powerwall 2 

Another one of Elon Musk’s most influential presentations is the Powerwall 2 unveil. Just like the Starship presentation, this one also takes place on a very apt location — a house yard with the sun shining before dusk. But in fact, this house has the Tesla solar roof that powers the Powerwall 2 integrated with the house. Musk shows how the house nearby has roofing of slate glass tiles as part of the solar roof. He also shows another house with the modern smooth glass tile that goes from transparent to opaque as the viewing angle changes. A similar effect is demonstrated on a Tuscan glass tile.

With the Powerwall 2, Musk offers a three-part solution with an appealing solar roof, combined with storage and electric cars. In fact, the Tesla product combined with solar roof gives the audience a glimpse into a more affordable and durable roofing solution. And Musk shows the attendees each type of roof tile and how it looks at a certain angle. The presentation is also about how the Tesla Powerwall 2 is integrated with the solar roof and enables running the house on affordable solar power.

Presentation USP: He knows his audience     

The reason why an Elon Musk presentation is able to leave an impact is because he crafts and delivers the presentation with his audience in mind. With Powerwall 2 unveil, the PayPal founder taps into the more pressing matter for the humankind — air pollution. Basically, he knows that the audience is gravitating towards Tesla for a renewable energy solution. So he brings the problem out front by giving the figure about record CO2 levels of that time. Of course, he substantiates that this is majorly because of fossil fuel energy generation. But he also brings out the reason why the Powerwall 2 is the solution, a level up from the predecessor Powerwall. Musk taps into the potential of a good demonstration too and shows the houses running on the solar energy through the Powerwall 2. Showing things in action gets the audience fired up about the product. In fact, it offers them a mindset for a cleaner and more sustainable future. How inspiring is that!

7. Tesla Model 3 

For Tesla, the drive to become bigger and better has come through years of perseverance and keen observation of consumer needs. In the Tesla Model 3 unveil, Elon Musk has leveraged the power of 3D animations to trace the progress that the company has made with each electric vehicle. Starting from the automotive wonder Roadster, Musk talks about various performance and cost aspects of the vehicle, moves on to Model S with superior features, and then onto Model X. He displayed them at the arena to get the audience on board with the journey of electric vehicles at Tesla.

“Can you fit a 7-foot-long surfboard inside the Tesla Model 3? The answer is, yes, you can!” says Musk as he elaborates how the vehicle is spacious enough to fit five people inside. He also builds up on how one will be able to go where they want to go with the help of superchargers and destination chargers. “If there is electricity, you will be able to charge your car,” Musk avers. Thereafter, he also elucidates how Tesla will work on producing half a million cars a year by becoming the largest manufacturer of the most advanced Lithium ion cells and batteries.

Presentation USP:  He isn’t trying to sell

As any presenter with a product pitch would swear by, Elon Musk also makes it a point to appeal to the senses and not try to sell his product. In fact, he just lists the benefits of his product from the customer’s point of view. How is it better? How is it cheaper? Why will it work for the average American who wants to plan his/her spending on a car that runs on electricity? What is the future scope of the product?

When Musk spreads out these benefits in front of his audience, they automatically get the audience hooked because it is from their point of view, not from a sales pitch point of view. In fact, it was within 24 hours before this presentation that Tesla had got around 115,000 orders for the Model 3. The audience has in fact turned into a potential customer just by the way he presented the product. And all that is bound to rise in the future too, thanks to Elon Musk serving perspective.

8. The Boring Company presentation

We have all been on the receiving end of troublesome traffic jam. And that hassle is only going to increase in the future. But who has come up with the solution to that persistent problem? Elon Musk, of course. His company, The Boring Company, has been developing tunneling solutions to provide futuristic underground transport services that will be put in place with the least disturbance to the existing infrastructure. In fact, Musk has unveiled this concept to show how the company’s work of digging and tunneling is economically viable and ergonomically superior to the traditional mode of tunneling, which, Musk says, is “as slow as a snail”.

Along with improving tunneling methods, Musk believes they can triple the output of boring machines into making a three-dimensional transport network. Besides, the company also aims to introduce hyperloops for commutes as fast as 200kmph. Even better is the production aspect of the system wherein the dug up material can be used to make bricks, a better alternative to the large scale concrete production in the world.

Presentation USP: He keeps it fresh and unique (every time)

As disruptive as The Boring Company’s ambition may seem, Elon Musk has addressed the worsening issue of billion dollar productivity loss due to traffic delays with his concept. In fact, a 1.2 mile-long test tunnel from the SpaceX office in Los Angeles has been in place for a long time. So something that brings down 900 million dollar per mile tunneling process to just 10 million or even lower had to be presented in a unique way. And Elon Musk does just that. He launched the presentation at the mouth of such a tunnel driving his Tesla vehicle. Even with every product launch, he has brought out something different, giving the people that want for more. He did the same with this presentation, and did it in style once again.

9. Tesla Model Y 

Speaking of doing things in style, Elon Musk has captured the pulse of tech and automotive enthusiasts across the globe with product unveil presentation. Each presentation has been about the next big thing in technology and the way we live our lives on earth. And sure, Tesla Model Y presentation shows it all. Musk has taken the opportunity to graph the trajectory of Tesla vehicles by bringing out the various models developed over the years to the stage one by one. And before Model Y unveil, the Tesla Model S, X, 3, and original and new generation Roadsters are driven to the stage amid loud cheers from the attendees.

A spectacular video precedes the unveil on the huge screen with which Musk explains how Tesla added value to the next generation electric vehicles with Model Y. Musk shines the light on how this model has functionality of an SUV and ride like a sports car. Emphasizing safety features being the priority of such vehicles, Musk elaborates the standard autopilot, 7 seat capacity, 0-60mph pickup in 3.5 seconds, and a panoramic glass roof. He ends the presentation by inviting the audience to come up to the stage and check out the car for themselves.

Presentation USP:  He presents shift in criticism as an impact

As someone who has enabled humans to have digital dreams beyond this planet, Elon Musk has faced quite the media scan, criticism and negative opinions as Tesla spread its wings. But in this particular presentation, he has shown the audience how the company had been able to tide over with its persistent and disruptive efforts. The presentation shows media report clippings calling electric cars “an extraordinarily bad idea”, or “a glorified golf car” or even “a waste of space” in 2009 and 2011.

However, Musk also mentioned the eventual change in such perception with prominent media houses lauding it with headline pieces like “General Motors is going all electric” or “Volkswagen is betting its future on electric cars”. With this, Musk was able to show that if one can dream big, he can make an impact, a common theme that runs through every presentation that the SpaceX chief delivers.

10. Caltech commencement speech

This one may not be about bringing a bedazzling car onto a platform. Rather this one is about what resources and ideas went into pioneering companies like Paypal, SpaceX and Tesla when Elon Musk was getting his formative education. While delivering the speech at the 118 th commencement ceremony of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 2012, the Zip2 founder puts together the pieces of the magic that is technology, and how young minds can make that magic happen for the 21 st century. He also implores the graduates to build a prototype before starting off with a company. Watch the inspiring speech here:

Presentation USP: No matter the platform, he is (and stays) himself

What makes this presentation worth mentioning as an influential one is that it gives us a glimpse into the beginnings of a brilliant mind and how ideas can run the world of future. As from a public speaking point of view, one will find that he is not pretending to be someone. Rather he is being himself and connecting with the graduates on that personal and heart-to-heart level. He also does not shy away from cracking jokes about himself and his “crazy” ideas, and thus, stays connected with the attendees, making them want to listen with intent and passion.

So in conclusion, one can see how Elon Musk is imperfectly perfect while giving a presentation. But it’s the passion and perspective with which he introduces us to mind-boggling products that makes us equate him to Iron Man. And who knows, he might even be! We will just have to hold our breaths until then.

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A future worth getting excited about

Here’s what Elon Musk’s language teaches us about his ambitions

Professor in Sociology, City, University of London

Disclosure statement

Petros Iosifidis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

City, University of London provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

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Elon Musk is known for his inventions. He’s the founder of rocket firm SpaceX , the CEO of electric car maker Tesla. But with his purchase of Twitter , his proclivity for inventing and using new words and phrases has come under fierce scrutiny.

There’s “hyperloop” (a proposed high-speed, tube-based transportation system), “supercharger” (a rapid electric car charger) and “gigafactory” (a large manufacturing facility for electric car batteries).

These invented words speak to Musk’s supersized ambitions. But they have also had a palpable impact on language. Eight years after it was popularised by Musk, gigafactory is now a common term in manufacturing even among Tesla’s rivals.

Other words such as “cybertruck” (Tesla’s prototype electric truck) conjure up the futuristic images that Musk aspires to with his inventions. Successfully coining words and phrases like this is a sign of the billionaire’s long-term influence.

The language of ambition

When Musk outlined his vision for SpaceX, he suggested that he was not interested in profit but in solving technical problems, sparking renewed excitement about space exploration and eventually developing a colony on Mars.

In an early interview , he said: “The dream of space is an integral part of the American identity. So if people think that there is a way to get to space, they will take that path. We need to show that it exists.”

Spurred on by Musk’s rhetoric, SpaceX has undoubtedly pushed boundaries and advanced human ambitions in space. Musk uses his celebrity status to make enthymematic arguments – arguments in which some premises are omitted as obvious. This works effectively with his many followers, and in fields like the artificial intelligence debate .

Musk positions himself as an expert who wants to solve problems, bypassing the traditional high costs of the car and aerospace industries to come up with effective solutions. To do this, he speaks in sets of propositions that seek to represent common knowledge without providing further information.

This works well for him because his celebrity offers a prestige which appears to compensate for a lack of deep expertise in many of the areas he discusses. This is in contrast to traditional experts such as Nicholas Bostrom (the University of Oxford philosopher with a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience and artificial intelligence who has influenced many of Musk’s ideas ), who the public typically expects to demonstrate their technical knowledge.

But if the motivation for Musk’s space ventures was supposedly to satisfy public interest, what is his ambition for the recent purchase of Twitter? Musk stated that Twitter is “the platform for free speech around the world”, but that it cannot achieve this “societal imperative” in its current form and “needs to be transformed as a private company”.

A privately-owned Twitter may more readily fulfil its business potential to investors, yet there are doubts as to whether it can satisfy the social potential of users. Here, his words matter again. Musk has pledged that his ambition is for the platform to become “the most accurate source of information”.

Yet the decision by Twitter , as of November 30, to no longer enforce its policy on COVID misinformation (a five-strike system that took action against accounts posting “demonstrably false or misleading” content) suggests Musk’s words aren’t being supported by his actions.

The language of utopia

One of Musk’s grander ambitions is to change the nature of language itself. Through his Neuralink company , Musk aims to enable telepathy via neural implants connecting humans and computers, rendering human language obsolete .

No doubt humans can coexist with AI, but a goal of bypassing human language entirely to enable “direct brain-to-machine communication” seems absurd.

A so-called “wordless cyborg future” is concerning because language not only helps us to communicate , but also enables us to infer meaning and explain and elaborate complex socio-cultural concepts . It also inspires us to make emotional connections. Words, alongside ethical behaviour and value judgements, constitute our moral being.

Wealthy entrepreneurs like Musk try to convince us with their words that everything is possible. However, socio-cultural institutions like Twitter need to remain open and free, not subjected to vested business or political interests.

In the era of neo-liberalism , it is imperative to guarantee freedom of expression, independent global public spheres and open civil society, so that we might critically engage with the way political and economic powers seek to manipulate platforms like Twitter.

Whether they realise it or not, billionaires’ language has consequences. Musk should be responsible with the way that he uses his.

• X (formerly Twitter)

Sydney Horizon Educators (Identified)

Senior Disability Services Advisor

Deputy Social Media Producer

Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy

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Breaking News English Lesson: Elon Musk

Home     |     help this site, time names elon musk 2021 person of the year    (16th december, 2021).

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• Elon Musk - Level 0
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The Reading / Listening - Elon Musk - Level 1

TIME magazine has announced its Person of the Year for 2021 is the business leader Elon Musk. TIME said: "Few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially, life off Earth too." It added that Mr Musk is the world's richest person, with more than $255 billion. He is also an example of the great changes in our society. He is helping to save the world and our future. He is working to explore space and get to Mars. This year has been amazing for Elon Musk. He went into space in his own rocket. His company SpaceX might take us to Mars. His car company Tesla has two-thirds of the electric car market. It is valued at around $1 trillion. Musk is also an engineer, inventor and pioneer in technology companies. He started the e-payments company PayPal. He has companies in robotics, solar technology and artificial intelligence. TIME called him a genius.

* ERROR: Elon Musk has never been into space.

Try the same news story at these levels:

     Elon Musk - Level 0 ,  Elon Musk - Level 2   or  Elon Musk - Level 3

• https:// time.com /person-of-the-year-2021-elon-musk/
• https://www. npr.org /2021/12/13/1063792887/elon-musk-time-person-of-the-year
• https://edition. cnn.com /2021/12/13/media/slug-time-person-year-elon-musk/index.html

Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

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"Much has been said and written on the utility of newspapers; but one principal advantage which might be derived from these publications has been neglected; we mean that of reading them in schools." The Portland Eastern Herald (June 8, 1795)

"News is history in its first and best form, its vivid and fascinating form, and...history is the pale and tranquil reflection of it." Mark Twain, in his autobiography (1906)

"Current events provide authentic learning experiences for students at all grade levels.... In studying current events, students are required to use a range of cognitive, affective, critical thinking and research skills." Haas, M. and Laughlin, M. (2000) Teaching Current Events: It's Status in Social Studies Today.

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Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1.

• the business
• Few individuals have had
• Mr Musk is the world's
• great changes in
• save the world
• He is working to
• $255 billion
• and our future
• more influence
• explore space
• richest person
• our society

Paragraph 2

• He went into space
• SpaceX might
• two-thirds of the electric
• It is valued at
• an engineer, inventor
• TIME called him
• and pioneer
• intelligence
• in his own rocket
• take us to Mars
• around $1 trillion

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

TIME magazine (1) ___________________ Person of the Year for 2021 is (2) ___________________ Elon Musk. TIME said: "Few individuals have had (3) ___________________ Musk on life on Earth, and potentially, (4) ___________________ too." It added that Mr Musk is the world's richest person, with more than $255 billion. He is also an example of (5) ___________________ in our society. He is helping to save the world and our future. He is working to (6) ___________________ get to Mars.

This year has (7) ___________________ Elon Musk. He went into space in (8) ___________________. His company SpaceX might take us to Mars. His car company Tesla (9) ___________________ of the electric car market. It is valued at around $1 trillion. Musk is also (10) ___________________ and pioneer in technology companies. He started the e-payments company PayPal. He has companies (11) ___________________ technology and artificial intelligence. TIME (12) ___________________ genius.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

TIMEmagazinehasannounceditsPersonoftheYearfor2021isthebusin essleaderElonMusk.TIMEsaid:"Fewindividualshavehadmoreinfluenc ethanMuskonlifeonEarth,andpotentially,lifeoffEarthtoo."Itaddedtha tMrMuskistheworld'srichestperson,withmorethan$255billion.Heisal soanexampleofthegreatchangesinoursociety.Heishelpingtosavethe worldandourfuture.HeisworkingtoexplorespaceandgettoMars.Thisy earhasbeenamazingforElonMusk.Hewentintospaceinhisownrocket. HiscompanySpaceXmighttakeustoMars.HiscarcompanyTeslahastw o-thirdsoftheelectriccarmarket.Itisvaluedataround$1trillion.Muskis alsoanengineer,inventorandpioneerintechnologycompanies.Hestar tedthee-paymentscompanyPayPal.Hehascompaniesinrobotics,sola rtechnologyandartificialintelligence.TIMEcalledhimagenius.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

(a) ________________ (b) ________________ (c) ________________ (d) ________________ (e) ________________ (f) ________________ (g) ________________ (h) ________________

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

(i) ________________ (j) ________________ (k) ________________ (l) ________________ (m) ________________ (n) ________________ (o) ________________ (p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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“Who is the world’s richest person? It’s Elon Musk, often topping the list of the world’s ten wealthiest individuals. He co-founded several multinational corporations, including Tesla, an electric car manufacturer, SpaceX, a rocket manufacturer, and The Boring Company, among others.

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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when or randomised words which don’t look even slightly believable

‘We have consistently flirted with death’: The construction problems in Elon Musk’s tunnels

The loop, the modular network of underground connections aimed at ending traffic jams in cities like las vegas or los angeles, has sparked controversy after several workers denounced the precarious conditions of the digging work.

It all started with a tweet. In the fall of 2016, now seven and a half years ago, Elon Musk took to Twitter to tell the world that he was fed up with the traffic in Los Angeles and that he had decided to remedy it. His solution, as prosaic as it was effective, consisted of building tunnels and taking a large part of that traffic underground, to a high-performance network where people could get from any point in the center of the big city to airport terminals in less than 10 minutes — all for just a $1 one-way ticket.

To materialize this utopia of urban mobility in record time, Musk created the Boring Company, his first major infrastructure company, presented with the appropriate pomp and ceremony in Hawthorne, California, in December 2016. Shortly after, Boring announced the launch of The Loop, a “modular” network of underground connections that was going to begin construction in less than a year in four metropolitan areas: Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and the conurbation between Washington D.C. and Baltimore.

The company’s initial steps — the construction of a first tunnel in Hawthorne, a test bed for Musk’s team innovative technology — suggested that the Californian phase was going to be a priority. But in the end, it was the Las Vegas Loop that became the Boring Company’s star project. It was an ambitious project, with an initial budget of $48.7 million that was set to rise to more than $500 million once it had passed the early phases. By 2024, the network was expected to cover nearly 70 miles and include 55 stations. A fleet of Tesla Model 3 cars, mostly self-driving, was going to cover the routes at an average speed of 150 miles per hour.

Problems arise

In recent weeks, media outlets such as Fortune , Bloomberg , Fox and QZ have reported on an incident that occurred several months ago, but has only just become public. As Jessica Mathews explains in Fortune, in May 2023, the then safety manager of one of the Boring Company’s branches, Wayne Merideth, sent a late-night email to his superiors in which he denounced the precarious conditions of the Las Vegas tunnel excavation works.

Merideth wrote that the company “has been very fortunate these past few months that there hasn’t been a fatality.” The safety manager said the lack of supervision and basic precautions had made the underground work highly dangerous. “We have consistently flirted with death,” he said in the email.

Merideth blamed the dire safety conditions on the company’s poorly calibrated attempt to accelerate the pace of excavations to meet deadlines that were never realistic and, what’s more, did not take into account the particularities of the terrain. Bloomberg journalist Max Chafkin reported that the excavation team has been forced to deal with pools of mud at least two feet deep with the “consistency of a milkshake” and a high degree of toxicity. Several employees said they had suffered burns, rashes and allergic reactions attributable to the high concentration of chemical accelerants (the byproducts of any dig) in the mud. Some of these injuries had become chronic due to the workers’ continuous exposure to the accelerants, an issue the company did not try to address. Merideth ended his email with this cutting sentence: “No tunnel is worth a single person’s life.”

Bloomberg reported that the workers’ complaints have reached the Nevada state health and safety commission. The newly opened proceedings could lead to million-dollar penalties for the Boring Company and cause new delays in the construction of the underground network that was going to transform the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

What’s happening in Las Vegas

The first two sections of the Vegas Loop — drilled 12 meters deep — were built in the spring of 2020 and entered the testing phase a year later, once the last of the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. Tens of thousands of volunteers were willing to act as guinea pigs on wheels in the cutting-edge experiment.

A few weeks later, Boring announced that these two sections and the five stations already operational had demonstrated their capacity to transport nearly 4,400 passengers per hour, with most journeys lasting less than five minutes. The launch and debut of the Vegas Loop would come a year and a half later , coinciding with the 2023 edition of the Consumer Electronic Show (CES).

At that time, Adrián Revuelta, a 43-year-old engineer from Madrid, who was a resident in Las Vegas and accredited at the 2023 fair, had the opportunity to go underground to see what Elon Musk’s new avant-garde development had to offer. “I remember that it seemed like an extravagance without much substance, far below initial expectations,” he told EL PAÍS. “I went down some escalators that gave access to a kind of quite precarious subway platform. Once there, after a short wait, they boarded me with another couple of travelers into a white Tesla Model Y piloted by a company driver. In a few minutes, at a constant speed of about 60 kilometers [40 miles], we traveled the only section available that day, around four kilometers [2.5 miles] between one end of the convention center and the other.”

The driver, apparently repeating the arguments that the company had given him, told Revuelta that this was the first “of more than a hundred tunnels that were going to be available in a few months and that very soon would take in between 5 and 10% of the private traffic of the city of Las Vegas.” Revuelta showed his skepticism and even commented that the tunnel — measuring “just three and a half meters wide, illuminated with rather dim LED lights” — seemed a bit “claustrophobic.” The driver shrugged his shoulders and acknowledged that there were still “minor details” to iron out. He then spoke to him about the magnificent opportunity that this cutting-edge engineering work was going to provide for professional drivers like him. “He imagined a fleet of thousands of electric cars making continuous journeys from one end of the network to the other. I asked him if there were plans to replace them with self-driving vehicles in the very short term and he replied that this idea had been rejected for safety reasons.”

Once on the surface, Revuelta met a co-worker who had also gone down to Musk’s underground tunnel and was as wary as him about the project. “He told me that it seemed like a cross between a private limousine service and the reinvention of the subway. We agreed that, no matter how much they promised individual routes for $1 and daily passes for less than $5, it seemed to be conceived rather as a very restricted and elitist network, a minority solution so that the richest could avoid the inconvenience of traveling on the surface. It seemed to us then and it still seems to me now that its impact on city traffic is going to be very limited. I think it is very unlikely that a network with these characteristics will one day absorb between a twentieth and a tenth of the vehicles that circulate through the city.”

Revuelta lives very close to the southern end of the Strip, the most popular “and most congested” avenue in Las Vegas. Few people would benefit more from Musk’s umpteenth idea becoming a success. What’s more, Revuelta is willing to recognize “its indisputable potential” and give it the benefit of the doubt. But he says nothing he has seen or read has inspired “even moderate” optimism.

The stuff dreams are made of

The four local variants of The Loop project have made hardly any progress in the 15 months since CES 2023. The Chicago, Los Angeles and Baltimore projects appear to have gone into hibernation and there is little news about the Loop, with the exception of controversy in Las Vegas about worker complaints.

In the opinion of Walter Isaacson, the most prestigious of his biographers , Elon Musk is a genuine representative of the culture of the so-called “providential man” and of what could be defined as the syndrome of executive impatience. According to Isaacson, Musk tends to think that what he doesn’t do, no one else will, because contemporary capitalism suffers from a worrying shortage of disruptive leadership. He believes that the changes demanded by our societies are happening at an exasperatingly slow pace for lack of ambition, competence and, very often, financial muscle. And that everything he does not lead seems doomed to failure or, worse, to irrelevance.

Entrepreneurship expert Sid Mohasseb argues that Musk has become obsessed with gaining the superpowers of a James Bond movie villain. Boosted by a fortune that remains around $180 billion despite last year’s drop, the Pretoria-born tycoon “can manipulate entire markets with a single tweet,” says Mohasseb, or embark on cyclopean projects such as plans “to program minds” and take society’s elite on trips to outer space.

In 2022, Mohasseb warned of the self-proclaimed “technological savior’s” dominance in diverse fields, be it driving the electric revolution with Tesla, implanting microchips in human brains with Neuralink , conquering space and destroying the asteroids with SpaceX, providing new payment options with PayPal or guaranteeing the supply of Internet to the farthest corners of the planet with Starlink . And this was all before Musk set out to monopolize public debate through an “alternative” channel (Twitter, now X) or take artificial intelligence to another level with Grok.

Some of these projects may be considered “noble” and worthy of praise — more in line with the work of a philanthropist with an unprecedented fortune than of a Darth Vader or a Montgomery Burns — but Mohasseb points out that even the Joker “wanted to make the world smile.” He argues that it is not a good idea for all the eggs of technological disruption to be in the same basket and that, as Lord Acton once said, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

For Mohasseb, the recipe against this one-man monopoly of large transformative projects is not to clip Musk’s wings, but to create a breeding ground that promotes free competition much more strongly. As much as money attracts money, other entrepreneurs deserve the opportunity to enjoy the generous grants and strong corporate support that Musk has received since his name began to become synonymous with capitalism.

Other analysts have also supported the thesis that Musk is the supervillain of our time. Jim Lepore, from The New Yorker , argues that self-proclaimed superheroes slide down the slope of evil as soon as they begin to put their powers at the service of their own agenda, a switch that may have happened with Bill Gates. When Stephen Colbert invited Musk on his late night show, he asked him — with a heavy dose of irony — if he really wanted to save the world. And Liam Gaughan, from The Dallas Observer , goes so far as to compare him to Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones , an autocrat who invites his subjects to speak out in order to identify the dissidents so he can purge them, as Mao Zedong did in his day.

Ultimately, as Alice Kelly argues in Your Tango , there are at least 16 “valid” reasons to hate Elon Musk, from how he has widened the global wealth, to his arrogant contempt for the diver who rescued a group of Thai schoolchildren, to his dalliances with the anti-vaccine movement, and to his treacherous manipulation of the cryptocurrency market. Seen this way, the fact that his plan to decongest traffic in Las Vegas has become stuck in a puddle of toxic mud with the consistency of milkshake doesn’t seem, by any stretch of the imagination, the worst of his actions.

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SpaceX's giant Starship will be 500 feet tall for Mars missions, Elon Musk says (video)

Starship reached orbital speed during its 3rd launch in March.

SpaceX's Starship, the largest rocket in the world, will get even bigger as the company continues to target Mars missions in the future.

Elon Musk , the billionaire founder of SpaceX , told employees on April 4 that Starship will eventually be as tall as 500 feet (150 meters), roughly 20% higher than the massive system aboard the Super Heavy rocket right now. 

What's more, advances in reusability will have each launch cost roughly $3 million each, Musk predicted; that's less than a third of what a (much smaller) Falcon 1 rocket launch cost in 2004 when inflation is taken into account. (The figure two decades ago was $5.9 million, according to NBC , which is roughly $9.5 million in 2024 dollars.) 

"These are sort of unthinkable numbers," Musk said in the Starship update, released publicly April 6, roughly one month after the third and last test flight to date . "Nobody ever thought that this was possible, but we're not breaking any physics to achieve this. So this is within the bounds, without breaking physics. We can do this."

Related: SpaceX fires up huge Super Heavy booster ahead of 4th Starship test flight (photos, video)

Musk tends to deliver Starship updates at least once a year to highlight progress the company is making toward its long-term plans of settling Mars . Indeed, the last year has seen three Starship launches, so there has been progress made recently. Musk didn't, however, address delays in launching Starship that have contributed to pushing back the launch date for the first moon landing under the NASA-led Artemis program .

SpaceX was named the vendor for the Artemis 3 landing mission that, until recently, was set for 2025. In January, NASA elected to hold the launch date another year, to 2026, due to a range of technical issues . Aside from Starship not being ready — the agency wants many successful launches before approving it for astronaut flights — Artemis 3 was also delayed due to slow progress on spacesuits and problems with the mission's Orion spacecraft , among other factors.

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However, Musk's words about Artemis, to employees, focused on Starship's future capabilities: orbiting the Earth and refilling its tanks, both of which have yet to be proven on its three test flights.

"This will ... be very important for the Artemis program for the NASA to get back to the moon," Musk said of those capabilities. He also envisions a "Moon Base Alpha" that would include ships "specialized for going to and from the moon", meaning there would be no heat shield or flaps due to the lack of atmosphere.

Related: NASA celebrates SpaceX Starship's 3rd test flight, but more work needed ahead of Artemis moon missions

Musk's 45-minute speech touched on the usual themes for his Red Planet updates, focusing on how to send a lot of cargo out there for eventual settlers. He noted that would take thousands of launches to do; for perspective, Musk said the company has completed 327 successful Falcon series launches and about 80 percent of those had reused boosters (a key factor in reducing cost.)

SpaceX is by far the most active launching entity on Earth, and Musk forecasts the company will send roughly 90 percent of orbital mass aloft this year compared to China's 6 percent (the second-largest entity.) 

Starship's next and fourth spaceflight attempt, expected to take place in May, aims to have the first stage of Super Heavy land "on essentially a virtual tower" in the Gulf of Mexico, Musk said. Once the company safely gets that done, they will consider using the launching area at Starbase, in south Texas, for future landings as soon as Flight 5. (Musk pegged the chances of success on Flight 4 at 80% or 90%.)

Musk also wants to perform two splashdowns of the upper stage of Starship in a row, in a controlled fashion, before sending it to Starbase on a future flight. "We do not want to rain debris over Mexico or the U.S.," he said. "My guess is probably next year when we will be able to reuse Starship."

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Overall, Musk plans for multiple Starship launches to take place this year, and suggests SpaceX will build an additional six spacecraft by the end of 2024. A new rocket factory for the company should be available in 2025, which would make production even faster. 

Future versions of Starship will include a "Starship 2" to send 100 tons of payload to low-Earth orbit and the 500-foot "Starship 3" for 200 or more tons. Bigger vehicles, Musk stressed, will mean fewer (four or five) refueling missions in low Earth orbit to get a Starship ready for the journey to Mars someday. 

Of these milestones, Musk said it would be "very much a success-oriented schedule." His speech did not mention the Federal Aviation Administration, which must approve each one of the launches, nor ongoing criticism of the environmental impact of Starship on the ecologically sensitive area near Starbase.

That impact may continue to grow, as Musk said it would take roughly 10 launches a day to send hundreds of vehicles to Mars every two years (when the planet is closest) to make a long-term settlement feasible. As for the number of Mars-bound people, that would be roughly a million folks, he said — that matches predictions he made at least as far back as 2017 . Musk also says he wants to get the settlement going "in 20 years." He said the same thing in 2011 .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, " Why Am I Taller ?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace

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• Laz excessive superlatives; starship as it stands is problematic with the physical forces during launch,: it destroys it's own launch pad, scattering debris far and wide, the noise is harmful and damaging, and what about the carbon emissions ? a few test launches (failures) to develop the program....at what cost ? Do we need this ? What do we need to go to Mars for ? colonization ? go colonize Antarctica instead- it's far closer and far more habitable in comparison. Reply
• billslugg What you need to do is to become a "credentialed investor", go over the counter and buy some SpaceX stock, then float a stockholder proposal at the next annual meeting. Keep us appraised. Reply
• orsobubu The goal of 2026 for the year of the return (or, according to some, the conquest) of the moon, already postponed many times, seems unrealistic to me; still having to demonstrate the permanence in orbit, the refilling, the recovery of the first stage, the functionality of the starship capture mechanism upon re-entry, plus countless other critical issues... while 2025 is indicated as the year in which a few solutions will be carried out for the first time. Nasa also declares that it intends to see many missions completed successfully before starting artemis 3 (which is still a bit strange, given the vaunted success of the first attempts of many key apollo technologies on the moon, moreover 55 years ago), and this adds a whole series of problems of validating mind-boggling new systems in such a hostile environment. Nasa itself has postponed its objectives countless times - albeit much more limited - in view of artemis 3, such as the suits, the insertion of orion and starliner into orbit, etc. Reply

Laz said: excessive superlatives; starship as it stands is problematic with the physical forces during launch,: it destroys it's own launch pad, scattering debris far and wide, the noise is harmful and damaging, and what about the carbon emissions ? a few test launches (failures) to develop the program....at what cost ? Do we need this ? What do we need to go to Mars for ? colonization ? go colonize Antarctica instead- it's far closer and far more habitable in comparison.

• Unclear Engineer If humans don't manage to kill ourselves off by the time Antarctica has melted enough to be colonized, I am sure it will happen. Greenland much sooner. Reply
• HobartStinsonian There are huge problems to overcome before landing any long-term presence on Mars, or on the moon. Basic engineering: how much weight can the soil support? No idea? You can’t rely on any ship remaining level, not sinking down, until you get this figured out to high reliability. Second issue, what will the effect be of spilling fluids onto the soil to its compressive strength? Consider the soils have been dessicated for billions of years. Then a small spill of water or oil soaks in next to a structural support that sits on that soil. No idea? I bet the impact will be huge and devestating. Will Elon experiment with soils before they land a 500-ft Starship on that soil? The first equipment on moon & Mars needs to be heavy soil-excavating, and heavy mobile cranes. We’ll need to know how to make concrete-like foundations. And how deep do they need to be. Reply
• View All 7 Comments

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Elon Musk Delivers Speech About Mars Settlement Plan

Spreader of life.

E lon Musk has long made plenty of highfalutin claims about colonizing Mars. Now, he's delivered another speech about this off world fantasy of his, providing a roadmap to settling the Red Planet that at least seems "tangible," in Ars Technica's assessment .

In a presentation to SpaceX employees at the company's Starbase facility in Texas, Musk outlined the "overall path to making life multiplanetary."

He said that Falcon 9 is the primary launch vehicle for Earth's orbit, but that Starship — SpaceX's largest and most powerful rocket, though it hasn't yet managed to launch to orbit and then land without destructing — is the vehicle that will ultimately bring life to other worlds.

As the most powerful rocket in the world, Starship will be capable of ferrying the massive payloads to orbit necessary to carry out large scale Mars missions, Musk said. All this — bear with us as we elucidate some Musk philosophy here — so that we can preserve the "light of consciousness" in the cosmos.

"We need enough people and enough tonnage on Mars such that Mars can survive and continue consciousness even if something were to happen to Earth," Musk said.

Towering Achievements

But before any of that can happen, there's more rocket science to be done. Starship in particular has suffered major setbacks, like exploding during several of its test flights . Its third and most recent launch last month saw it reach space for the second time — its most successful run yet — but the rocket still didn't survive reentry and crashed into the ocean.

The next test, Musk told the audience, will involve landing the Starship booster on a "virtual tower" in the ocean. Then, in the fifth test, SpaceX will attempt to catch the booster with an actual launch tower in Starbase, cementing its capabilities.

"My guess is probably next year is when we will be able to reuse Starship," Musk said.

Overwhelming Output

Reusability is key. One-and-done rockets wouldn't be able to carry out the high volume of rocket launches — Musk estimates as high as thousands of ships every 26 months — to orbit, and then to Mars. So far, SpaceX has successfully conducted 327 Falcon launches, Ars notes.

It also drives down costs. In addition to making the massive rocket reusable, Musk wants to make it even bigger. A reusable "Starship 2" will s upposedly carry 100 tons of cargo to orbit, he said, and "Starship 3" will carry upwards of 200 tons. With such astonishing output, "Starship 3 will cost less per flight than Falcon 1," Musk claimed, as low as $2 to $3 million.

In total, SpaceX estimates that it will need to build several thousand vehicles per year and carry out 10 launches per day to send millions of tons of cargo to Mars.

"I think this is pretty doable," Musk said. "We're actually going to do this."

Of course, more than a few experts have cast doubt on Musk's Martian ambitions . As for Starship, it'll still have to prove itself capable of carrying out its role in NASA's mission, Artemis 3, to land on the Moon.

More on Mars: A Single Asteroid Caused Two Billion Craters on Mars, Scientists Claim

The post Elon Musk Delivers Speech About Mars Settlement Plan appeared first on Futurism .

• The Inventory

Tesla Recalls All Cybertrucks Over Accelerator Pedal Defect

Elon musk's new favorite toy is going as well as everything else he's touched lately..

Tesla’s Cybertruck has been quite an embarrassment and not just because of its looks. The electric vehicle that looks like it was designed by a child already has rust issues , doesn’t do well with puddles , and some can’t even survive a car wash , but an issue that causes the accelerator pedal to stick finally prompted a recall.

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Tesla will recall 3,878 Cybertrucks on Friday, according to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Those vehicles have a defect in which the pad on top of the pedal can slip off and get wedged into the interior trim causing unintended acceleration. This defect is due to a lubricant that was used during the assembly process in order to make it easier to attach the pad to the pedal. Unfortunately, it appears that this workaround also makes it easier for the pad to become detached from the pedal.

Telsa didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the recall.

Cybertruck owners affected by the issue will get their pedals replaced or reworked for free. Tesla has already begun addressing the defect in production and will apply the fix to trucks already at delivery centers.

The issue of the stuck pedal started popping up at the end of March with some owners posting about it on social media . Last week, Tesla put a hold on sales of the Cybertruck as it investigated the problem. According to the NHTSA, there have been no reports of death or injuries due to the defect.

It took years for the Cybertruck to make its way from an embarrassing stage reveal to people’s driveways last December . Its “unique” design with a sticker price starting at just over $80,000 has resulted in one embarrassing moment after another . Musk, on the other hand, seems to be more focused on getting a $55 billion compensation package from shareholders.

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