Skip to main content

Elon Musk- A Short Biography

Elon Musk- A Short Biography

Elon Musk. You already know him as developing Tesla cars and SpaceX rockets. He is at the pinnacle of deep-space travel with the awaitment of the DM-2 mission. We have not yet seen his full potential. Many people today still do not know the story behind the man.


  Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa on June 28, 1971 to parents Erron and Maye Musk. Maye Haldeman was part of a very famous family, travelling all around the globe in pursuit of archaeological treasures. Erron Musk was one of the most brilliant engineers of his time.


Elon Musk was an opportunistic child. He was a creative mind, memorizing random and strange facts. He spent up to 10 hours a day reading Science Fiction then gradually Non-Fiction (He loved the Encyclopedia Britannica). He built his own computer game at age 12 called Blastar. 


As a child growing up in South Africa, Elon Musk was constantly bullied. Elon Musk, was in fact, hospitalized after he was beaten to nearly death by a gang of boys. He almost blacked out. 


His family life was not good either. His father was known to give excruciating lectures while keeping the kids quiet for hours at a time. He repeatedly persisted in abusing Elon Musk, calling him “stupid” and such. He was even charged with manslaughter for killing three men who came into his home. 


Facing conscription in the South African Army, he moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University. In a close call, he reportedly chose Queen’s University instead of Waterloo University as there weren't any girls! He worked an odd amount of jobs while in Canada. He worked a cousin’s farm in Saskatchewan and threw parties at a clubhouse to raise money. Transferring to Wharton University, 

he obtained double degrees in physics and economics.


He soon left Wharton to go to found Zip2, a company which provided telephone directories for companies to businesses who had no idea of getting onto the internet. People had trouble getting onto the idea, calling it the “dumbest thing they’d ever heard of.” It was soon funded by angel investors such as David Mohr Adventures, until it was acquired by Compaq Computer for $305 million.

He soon invested that money in a new venture, SpaceX. In its early years, it  was plagued with failures. In 2008, his Falcon 1 rocket failed 3 times, while the Tesla was hemorrhaging money. His financial earnings were depleted. A fourth failure would have sealed the deal. A victory call with NASA for a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to send cargo to the ISS sealed the deal.


SpaceX and Tesla have both overcome the odds it faced early on. SpaceX is set for a flight giving the United States the ability to transport astronauts to the ISS for American soil. Tesla has given us retractable plush handles on the Model S sedan. As the future progresses, it will be interesting to see what it beholds for Tesla, SpaceX, and for the creative genius Elon Musk.


P.S. You should read the Ashlee Vance biography for more compr

ehensive details!

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 20, 2020 at 10:30 AM

    Good job big brother :) keep it going!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Few Glimpses of the DM-2 Mission

On nasa.gov/stem, a link for a new activity was posted. It was an activity for  coding a docking simulation using the Crew Dragon spaceship or the Boeing Starliner. I first played the Rocket Science: Ride to Station game (which is also available on Android and iOS). I then recreated it in either Scratch or Snap, which are two block-based programming languages. I had to make the user choose what type of spacecraft the user wanted to dock (ie. SpaceX Crew Dragon or Boeing Starliner). I had to let the user choose whether they wanted to autonomously dock the spacecraft or manually. I had to inform the user if they had successfully docked or not with a message and a sound. Thus, I created a “game” to do all of this. I tweeted it. And to see if my code was chosen I have to login to the NASA Social Broadcast. The NASA DM-2 mission from which this event originated is a real-live mission involving a human launch that will give the United States the opportunity to reach the International Spa...
6 comments
Read more

An Introduction to Stargazing

Have you ever looked upon at the heavens and wondered? What makes these celestial objects twinkle in the sky? Why are they so bright? What makes them so bright? Why do they form constellations? Those celestial objects you see up in the sky may not be stars at all. They may simply be planets, natural or artificial satellites, or stars. There is way you can distinguish between the two. Planets are typically brighter than stars. They are spherical in shape and are generally spherical. Stars and planets also move in different celestial patterns. A planet moves by the rules of the moon and the sun. A celestial object that moves in a straight line is most likely a planet. A star moves in  a circular planet. Stars twinkle due to the effect of our atmosphere. When you look overhead, the light from the stars is refracted through the atmosphere. This atmosphere causes it to twinkle, as the density of the atmosphere changes, making the light zigzag even more. You may also see more atmosphere ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The NBA Explained:

The NBA Explained: Have you wondered about Giannis Antetokounmpo or Lebron James. Have you seen them take a shot that seems purely impossible until it hits the net without touching the rim? This is the world of basketball, where the impossible happens. Basketball is a sport which is played with two teams, one ball, and a basket on a 94 ft (length) and 50 ft (width). The objective of the game is to shoot the ball into the opponent’s basket  by dribbling it across the court within 24 seconds. All shots beyond the arc are each worth three-point while shots inside are worth two points. Failure to do this within 24 seconds results in a shot-clock violation, and the ball is awarded possession to the other team. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.  Like in any game there are also penalties for infractions. These infractions usually come through either violations and fouls. Violations are called when a player breaks one of the rules. A team has 24 seconds to shoot...
Post a Comment
Read more