On the morning of February 10, Beijing time, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) released the list of additional academicians of the National Academy of Engineering in 2021, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was officially elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
But interestingly, Musk's election as an academician has nothing to do with Tesla.
The Beijing News Shell financial reporter learned from the official website of the American Academy of Engineering and Tesla that as the CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, Musk is considered to have achieved breakthroughs in the field of reusable rockets and new energy systems, and has made breakthroughs in design, engineering, manufacturing, operation and other aspects.
Musk then retweeted the message on social networks and said "thank you very much."
The reporter noted that after Musk was selected, Ren Yuxiang, former vice president of Tesla's business development, commented in the circle of friends, "He has been the chief engineer of Space X, which is deserved."
In June 2020, Ren Yuxiang, the "hero" of Tesla's Shanghai factory construction, quietly left Tesla, and before that, Ren Yuxiang was mainly responsible for the promotion of Tesla's energy business in China. Tesla founder Musk attaches great importance to the energy business.
It is understood that in addition to launching rockets, Musk is also studying how to enable humans to achieve interstellar migration, and how to make humans use the existing energy of the earth for a longer time. In Musk's view, the sun is like a fusion reactor hanging in the sky, emitting energy on time every day. This is also why Tesla will launch pure electric vehicles, expand energy storage business, launch Powerwall, photovoltaic roof and other products.
It is understood that Musk hopes to use the entire clean energy cycle ecological chain to solve the drawbacks of traditional fossil fuels from the root and promote the transformation of energy structure to renewable clean energy.
Continuously transporting microsatellites into orbit the Falcon 9 rocket is costly
The reporter learned that being elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering is one of the highest professional honors awarded to engineers. The Academy recognizes those who have made "outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, to the engineering literature," including those who have "pioneered new and developing technical fields, made significant progress in traditional engineering fields, or developed and implemented innovative approaches to engineering education."
What exactly did Musk contribute to the rocket?
In June 2002, Musk created SpaceX Private Company, a company that explores Martian colonization, to develop a reusable starship. After 10 years of creation, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully delivered cargo to the International Space Station, ushering in a new era of private spaceflight.
In the half year of 2021 alone, SpaceX has put nearly 900 microsatellites into orbit, almost double the number of satellites launched globally in any year before 2020. As of June 30, SpaceX has completed 36 orbital launches and 35 Falcon 9 rocket booster landings in the past 12 months, losing only 1 booster in the process.
However, it should be noted that the cost of the Falcon 9 rocket is also very high.
According to media reports, Musk recently said that the Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket, and the rocket's single launch cost is around $15 million to $20 million, which is already the lowest rocket launch cost ever. In addition, Musk is working to advance the rapid reuse of the rocket, and if successful, the cost per ton of rocket entry into orbit is expected to be reduced by 100 times.
According to the data, Musk has sold 7 sets of mansions under his name, just to fund the Mars project, hoping to accelerate rocket development and solve the problem of sustainable energy, "Mars is still a house, what is more important", Musk said at the time.
Leading 1 million people to colonize Mars in 2050 will cost $1 trillion to travel
Musk's dream is not just to launch rockets, but also to interstellar colonists.
In January 2020, Musk announced that by 2050, he would lead 1 million people to colonize Mars, and he also determined to build a fleet of starships and establish a solar base on Mars to make humans a transstellar species.
If only a small number of Earthlings were discussed to colonize Mars, this migration plan is even close at hand.
In March 2021, foreign media reported that Musk had said that SpaceX would land its Starship rocket on Mars by 2030. In May 2021, Musk has advanced the time to 2024.
But the reality is that Mars colonization is expensive.
According to media reports, Musk has revealed that the round-trip cost of going to Mars is now about $1 trillion, but no amount of money can buy a ticket to Mars. That's also because the current average cost of reaching Mars by weight per ton is around $1 billion, which includes not only the manufacture of rockets and launches, but also thermal insulation, navigation systems, space communications, and landing systems.
Musk said $1 billion is just a rough estimate. But it's obviously a bit expensive and doesn't create a self-sufficient civilization, "so we need to cut the cost by at least a thousand times," Musk said, ideally a landing cost per ton would be well below $1 million.
According to reports, Musk believes that if a self-sustaining city is to be built on Mars, a lot of infrastructure needs to be built on Mars, such as semiconductor factories, ore smelters, etc., so the weight of the rocket is at least one million tons.
But the good news is that solar cell company SolarCity may be able to provide electricity for Martian settlers.
In fact, Musk is also studying how to make human beings use the earth's existing energy for a longer time, convert solar energy, a clean energy source, into electricity, and then replace traditional fuel oil with electricity.
In Musk's view, the sun is like a fusion reactor hanging in the sky, emitting energy on time every day. This is also why Tesla will launch pure electric vehicles, expand energy storage business, launch Powerwall, photovoltaic roof and other products.
Musk hopes to use the entire clean energy recycling ecological chain to solve the drawbacks of traditional fossil fuels from the root causes of generation and promote the transformation of energy structure to renewable clean energy.
In October 2021, Tesla's annual shareholders' meeting was held at the Texas Gigafactory, and Musk introduced that Tesla stores energy through a large area of solar roof installation, and energy can be used by Tesla batteries, Tesla vehicles, or sold to the grid to maximize applications and minimize carbon emissions.
According to statistics, the Tesla Model 3, which is completely charged by solar energy, has an average life cycle emission of only about one-tenth of that of a traditional medium-sized luxury car, and it is less than half of the full use of the grid for charging.
"Battery material is infinitely recyclable, fuel is not." Musk said at the shareholder meeting. The data shows that in 2020, each car produced in the United States will emit about 69 tons of carbon dioxide in its exhaust gases over its average lifetime. While electric vehicles do not have exhaust gas problems, Tesla can complete the production of new batteries by continuously recycling old batteries after obtaining battery materials, further reducing carbon emissions and resource consumption in the production process. At present, Tesla has achieved 92% reuse of battery raw material metal.
Beijing News shell financial reporter Lin Zi Editor Xu Chao Proofreader Guo Li
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