Why is Elon Musk Determined to Invest in One of the Most Risky Industries, Even Though He is Not a Rocket Scientist?
Starting from Scratch
Like many other children, Elon Musk dreamed of spaceships and space travel from a young age. However, perhaps the American billionaire never anticipated that his dream would become a reality so soon. In fact, Musk’s achievements are now more than ever a clear foundation for humanity’s potential to set foot on distant lands beyond Earth.
Musk’s dream of conquering space was nurtured when he attended annual events of the Mars Society. Here, he met and conversed with groups of experts and space enthusiasts whose goal was to explore and send humans to Mars.
From a young age, Elon Musk dreamed of spaceships and space travel.
The more Musk thought about space, the more he realized the importance of exploring the mysteries of the galaxy. In 2002, he gathered a team of top aerospace experts to establish SpaceX.
Fast forward 18 years, and the rockets he created have taken humanity into space, ready to conquer new challenges.
Learning Rocket Science from Books
One of the things that makes Elon Musk special is that he is not a rocket scientist, or at least not formally trained in the field. But have you ever wondered why Musk founded and leads one of the largest and most accomplished space exploration companies in the world?
“I read books,” is Musk’s succinct answer that surprises everyone. Although it may sound unbelievable, this is the secret of billionaire Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX.
Elon Musk reads books to build rockets.
It was in 2001 when Elon Musk was over 30 years old and had a large sum of money from selling PayPal to eBay. He thought it was time to channel all his energy into something new.
As a risk-taker and dreamer, he began to focus on the idea of conquering Mars, even though it was considered a crazy idea. Musk attempted to buy rockets from Russia, but the prices were exorbitant. At that point, he thought, why not try to… build his own rocket? Without hesitation, Musk reached out to aerospace consultant Jim Cantrell to discuss his idea. He also borrowed every book on aerospace he could find to read.
While this might be just a fleeting hobby for an ordinary person, for Musk, this passion transformed him into an expert in the field.
Jim Cantrell was astonished when SpaceX was established: “I was incredibly surprised; that’s why he borrowed all my books. Elon actually planned to build rockets.”
Success Rate Below 1%
Most private space companies only offer services, using rockets purchased from NASA or other manufacturers. This is because developing spacecraft is a high-risk business and often comes with the danger of fatalities from explosions, as well as millions of dollars in investment for each project.
However, just as certain prejudices need a “crazy guy” to refute them, Elon Musk emerged with SpaceX, becoming one of the very few private companies to research technology and manufacture its own rockets.
The Starship SN4 prototype exploded during a test at the launch site near Boca Chica, Texas on May 29, 2020 (Photo: Spadre.com).
When Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, he believed that what the company was doing was a “fantastical mission.” He knew he was entering a high-risk industry and estimated the chance of success for projects to be less than 1%.
“Initially, I didn’t let my friends invest because I knew they would lose money,” he candidly admitted. “I thought I would rather lose my own money.” As a result, SpaceX was established with primary funding from Elon Musk after he became a millionaire from selling PayPal.
The early failures of SpaceX’s rockets showed that Musk’s predictions were not wrong. The repeated failures put Elon Musk and SpaceX in a dire situation, nearly facing bankruptcy. Actress Talulah Riley, Musk’s girlfriend at the time, revealed that the American billionaire would often wake up in the middle of the night, screaming from nightmares and suffering physically.
Elon Musk shocked the world with his ambition to enable human migration to Mars.
The pain and fears of Elon Musk have been documented over the years, including in Ashlee Vance’s 2015 biography, as well as in books about the privatization race in the aerospace industry by Christian Davenport and Tim Fernholz.
Despite this, Musk had his reasons to believe in the success of the project. That was Tom Mueller, one of the most experienced rocket engine manufacturers, a valuable name in the team of engineers Musk recruited.
Previously, Musk also had Michael Griffin, a top aerospace engineering expert who would later become the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) four years later.
The Dream of Colonizing Mars
From the very beginning with SpaceX, Elon Musk has “shocked” everyone with his ambition to enable human migration to Mars. Musk believes that humanity has the ability to transform the harsh environment of the Red Planet and make it a “colony” of Earth.
He even promised to use half of his wealth to build a city on Mars. He stated that this was to “ensure the continuation of all species in case Earth is struck by a massive asteroid or a third world war erupts that destroys everything.”
Elon Musk plans to send one million people to Mars by 2050.
The SpaceX founder stated that he plans to send one million people to Mars by 2050 and build a fleet of 1,000 Starship rockets to transport them. Musk aims to launch three Starship rockets a day for space travel purposes.
With his bold and somewhat unconventional nature, Elon Musk points out that the only way to succeed is to be “crazy” and “fall down a lot.” His achievements, along with SpaceX, have truly transformed the space industry, or in other words, made his seemingly crazy plans feasible. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article to learn more about this.
Elon Musk indicates that the only way to succeed is to “fall down a lot”.
