The Incredible Innovations of Elon Musk

Elon Musk by Steve Jurvetson via CC 2.0

Elon Musk has been a staple in the news as of late, most recently for his successful launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket for his private space company, SpaceX. However, there is much more to this man than just being an eccentric billionaire. Musk has been the driving force behind countless innovations in the past decade, and is likened to the incredible minds of Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison. Many regard Elon Musk as one of the top innovative minds in the world right now, and the wonders he has brought to this world have the potential to propel mankind to new levels.

When most people think about Elon Musk, Tesla will be the first thing to pop in their head. Tesla is a publicly traded electric-car company that has seen a 700 percent rise in stock in the last 2.5 years alone. The company has been one of the leaders in producing electric vehicles that are capable of driving long range and are completely environmentally friendly. They recently released the Model 3, which is their affordable model that will start at $35,000. Musk envisions Tesla as being the number one manufacturer of electric vehicles, and hopes that their battery technology will eventually power entire cities one day.

Introduced in 2013, Hyperloop is Musk’s idea to transform the transportation system of crowded cities, allowing for quick and easy travel. A revolutionary rail system, the Hyperloop aims to allow commuters to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 35 minutes or less. The Hyperloop would consist of a tube-like rail car with extremely-low pressure, which would drastically reduce air pressure, and give the ability for it to travel at speeds of up to 800 miles per hour. While the Hyperloop is still a ways away from being completed, the company has begun construction in Quay Valley, California.

SpaceX is another incredible company that Musk founded in 2002, which aims to reduce the cost of space transportation and enable the colonization of Mars. Lofty goals in their own, SpaceX has since successfully launched numerous rockets, their most recent being the most powerful rocket to have ever been launched. Musk even had his very own Tesla Roadster car strapped onto the rocket, which was then launched into space onto a trajectory for Mars. The company has flown resupply missions to the International Space Station and has been awarded contracts from NASA, to develop spacecraft for future space missions. By the mid-2020’s, Musk hopes SpaceX will begin launching the first manned mission to Mars.

The Boring Company is one of the latest of Musk’s developments, and has a funny story behind its conception. One day, Musk was in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the I-405, and thought to himself there must be a better way of getting mass amounts of people around in a more efficient way. He famously tweeted, “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.” He followed it up with “It shall be called ‘The Boring Company’.” Since then, Musk has stayed true to his word, and has begun digging a network of wide tunnels underneath Los Angeles, with the goal of installing his Hyperloop technology to allow rapid transit across densely populated areas. Musk says that there are three other projects he’s working on in other cities, including Hawthorne, Baltimore, and Chicago.