The richest man also wants to "brush rockets"? How much money does this thing burn?

Rocket enthusiasts must have heard that if you want to go into space, you really need the help of this hero. The man I want to introduce to you today also has a space dream

Rocket enthusiasts must have heard that if you want to go into space, you really need the help of this hero. The man I want to introduce to you today also has a space dream. He is very interested in exploring the mysteries of Mars, so he decided to "brush the rocket" first

Uh, don't get me wrong, this is not just a live streaming room offering gifts, but a real rocket that can go to heaven! This old man's name is probably not unfamiliar to you, it is the founder of Tesla and founder of Space Technology Exploration Company, Musk.

So what did he do to achieve his "small goal" of "brushing rockets"?

The dream of a big injustice is not simple

In June 2001, an American organization called the Mars Society held a dinner party. The goal of this association is to enable humans to settle on Mars.

Our previous program also introduced that Mars is the fourth planet in our solar system, only 14 million kilometers away from us. Although named Mars, its surface temperature is extremely low, with an average temperature of around minus 60 degrees Celsius.

However, scientists have discovered the presence of ice caps between the South and North Poles of Mars, which means that there may have been water on this planet, or it may have existed before. So from all angles, Mars seems to be the only planet discovered so far, second only to Earth, suitable for human migration.

It can be said that members of the Mars Society believe that humans will eventually immigrate to Mars, after all, we humans have almost caused disaster to Earth and must expand outward and search for resources from other planets.

So, the members of the association brainstormed various ideas, but to turn their ideals into reality, whether the level of technology can keep up with it will be discussed separately. The most important thing is to have money. At the very least, studying how to go to Mars, making transportation to Mars, and managing food, clothing, housing, transportation on Mars all cost money, including firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.

And this association itself obviously doesn't have the financial resources, what should we do? Throughout history, there has been a universal good method, which is to eat the wealthy - the Eight Immortals cross the sea and show their respective abilities to deceive and kidnap wealthy people, oh no, raise funds!

There are also many ways to raise funds, such as organizing banquets.

How can a banquet make money? Firstly, they make the banquet look like a concert, with a particularly high-end atmosphere and upscale atmosphere. If you want to come in, you have to spend money to buy tickets, and a ticket costs $500. It can be imagined that the number of people who can come is somewhat wealthy.

Gather these wealthy people together and chat while drinking a little wine, perhaps you can have a conversation. Would it be even better if a generous CEO were to pick up his wallet on the spot? Anyway, if there were any dates or not, we would have to wait and see, so the association sent invitations everywhere. Unfortunately, they sent out more invitations, but received fewer responses.

Unexpectedly, one day, a guy named Musk not only signed up, but also sent a check for $5000.

The members of the association searched on the spot and found that this person was a young wealthy man with considerable fame in the internet field.

Looking at that $5000, everyone first wrote four big words in their hearts: "People are stupid, money is abundant." Isn't that a perfect sign?

The association immediately started using Musk as a bait: everyone, listen up. We're going to have a high-end dinner party, and famous entrepreneur Musk is coming to admire us. Are you coming?

A series of tricks and tricks have attracted many guests, including even James Cameron, the director of the movie "Titanic".

At the dinner party, various celebrities chatted enthusiastically, and the association arranged for the bold and generous wealthy father Musk to be seated. Everyone talked about various topics such as space and Mars for several yuan.

Cameron caught Musk's eye and asked him to invest in his next movie. The founder of the Mars Society, Zhuobilin, quickly used his three pronged tongue and had a good conversation with the gold owners about his "life migration mission". The name sounded lofty, but it was actually about allowing mice to inherit in space. I hope Musk can understand.

Musk was also very polite and didn't take that meaning as an apology. He directly donated $100000 to the Mars Society!

But what he wants to do far exceeds the idea of the Mars Society. Rather than sending a group of mice into the sky, Musk wants them to simply go straight to Mars, okay?

Later, he simply withdrew from the association and established his own Mars adventure organization, called the Mars Life Foundation.

He searched for talents everywhere and quickly formed a top team of experts, creating a more ambitious new project - the "Mars Oasis" project.

According to the plan, what Musk needs to do is to get a rocket, send a mechanical greenhouse to Mars, and collect some rock debris or soil on the surface of Mars. He thinks that as soon as the plants breathe, photosynthesis begins, and the first breath of oxygen on Mars is born!

The plan to transform the harsh barren land into a friendly environment suitable for survival deeply moved Musk, and he decided to roll up his sleeves and do it! But first, we need a rocket.

Brother has money. Do you have a rocket

The plan is very full, but where does the rocket come from?

If you need something but don't have it on hand, your first reaction is probably to buy one, and Musk is the same. The first step is to add the rocket to the shopping cart; The second step is to prepare to pay, but rockets and regular products are still quite different, and the ordering process is also a bit complicated.

To put it simply, although it shows that it is in stock, it is too precious. Whether or not to sell it to you and how much to sell it to you depends on the seller's the final say. The buyer can only prepare money to obey orders.

On the first stop of the rocket purchase, Musk arrived in Europe and had a verbal altercation with the head of the European Satellite Launch Alliance. They secured the entire top floor of the top hotel across from the Louvre in France and held a 60 hour meeting, followed by another 30 hour party.

After arguing for so long and not cutting the price, I had to give up with tears in my eyes.

In the second stop of the rocket purchase, Musk chose Russia, where it is said that the market is good and the price is cheaper. Compare the original budget with the legendary Russian market price, good guy! They could buy three rockets at a time, and Musk had already started stealing joy.

In Moscow, he is preparing to hold talks with rocket manufacturers here. But soon he realized something was wrong, and these people had no intention of making this business! They thought in their hearts that this kid would definitely not be able to afford a rocket, but it would be great if they could find a way to knock him off.

In over four months, Musk had three talks with the seller, but there was no progress at all. In the end, the price could not be negotiated, and the sale fell through.

Musk and his companions sat on the return plane dejectedly. Is the great space dream about to end before it even begins? Musk was unwilling.

On the plane, while others collapsed and lost their minds, Musk was fidgeting with his laptop. My friends all think, this fool doesn't know what else he wants to do after taking a break?

After a while, Musk turned around and presented a rocket manufacturing quotation:Brothers, I think we can build our own rockets

If you can't buy a rocket, then build it yourself

The rocket purchase plan has hit a wall one after another, and everyone thinks it's hopeless now. Let's go back to our respective homes and find our mothers when it comes to landing in an artificial greenhouse on Mars.

Who would have thought that Musk planned to build his own rocket and even made a particularly detailed plan - how much it would cost to build, assemble, and launch the rocket, as well as a bunch of performance features of the rocket, and he even wrote them all down!

My friends were all stunned - Old Ma, where did you get these data? Musk's answer is also very simple, just read a book.

The old saying goes that there is a golden house in books, and if Musk heard this sentence, he would definitely raise his hands and feet in favor.

This child born in South Africa has been fond of reading since childhood, and his mother Mayer sometimes calls him a "bookworm".

Mayer discovered early on that his own son is particularly intelligent. He can immediately understand anything he says to him, but he has a strange habit of being in a daze. When others talk to him, he often doesn't react and just stares blankly into the distance, as if he hasn't heard him.

Other children were shouting and shouting next to him, and he didn't take it seriously. He did what he should do. Mom even suspects that the child may not have ear problems, right?

I went to the hospital for a bunch of tests, and in the end, the doctor gracefully cut off his tonsils, but it was still of no use.

Finally, the doctor believed that the child's hearing was normal, and it was due to a brain problem. The part of the brain that was originally responsible for visual and auditory functions was absent from work and occupied by thinking.

In a word, your child is just too fond of thinking.

Musk, who loves to think, is simply addicted to books. He always holds a book in his hand and reads 10 hours a day as a daily routine.

On the weekend, the whole family went out for a big shopping trip. As soon as Musk turned around, he disappeared. Don't worry, the child is not lost. Go to the nearest bookstore to search and find out, and you will definitely catch him.

By the third and fourth grades of elementary school, Musk had thoroughly cleaned the school library and begged the librarian to order more new books.

The most important thing is that when he reads a book, he is not like a bear scratching a stick. He forgets every book he reads, and the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is completely familiar to him. One of his childhood classmates once said, 'Whenever we encounter problems, we subconsciously say,' Ask that bookworm. '.

At the age of 17, Musk bravely ventured to Canada alone. At the age of 24, after two days of doctoral studies at Stanford University, he decided to drop out and start a business.

At the age of 31, his first entrepreneurial project, PayPal, was a great success and quickly became one of the world's largest electronic payment companies, providing convenient and fast payment methods for millions of people. He received $165 million as a result.

Immediately after, he became infatuated with Mars exploration, and the things we just mentioned happened.

In June 2002, Musk invested $100 million to establish the Space Exploration Technology Company, preparing to fight back in the space industry.

In order to study rockets, he spent several months immersing himself in the sea of books, learning about various doors and gates in the aerospace industry, and listing the planned progress of rocket manufacturing.

This schedule can be said to be quite crazy. He plans to build the first rocket thruster in May 2003, complete the production of the rocket body in July, complete the rocket assembly in August, debug the launch pad in September, and launch the first rocket in November.

There are even rumors that the company plans to achieve a human landing on Mars by the end of 2010. You probably thought it was funny today, but this news caused a sensation at the time, and many science fiction fans were crazy about it, followed by a huge advertising effect.

Space exploration technology companies are no longer unknown. As soon as their names are announced, people immediately think, 'Hey, this is the company that is going to land on Mars.'.

Of course, Musk himself did want to quickly achieve a landing on Mars. An employee revealed that this boss is simply an efficiency maniac. What he expects to accomplish in an hour, the employees will have to rush all day. If he says something will take a day, it's over. His subordinates will be working on the liver project day and night for the next few weeks.

Success traffic, failure traffic

No one knows how to build a rocket; To fail and fail again, first cultivate a mindset. After burning up the money, the rocket has not yet appeared, and global live streaming has caught the attention of the world. Can the counterattack be smooth and effective?

When Musk decided to devote himself to the rocket industry, many people thought he was crazy. He used rocket explosions as a keyword to search for videos online and saw thousands of various rocket accidents.

From 1957 to 1966, the United States alone launched over 400 rockets, of which over 100 went to heaven.

However, these can't scare Musk. He thinks that having failed cases is also a good thing, and it just provides us with a lesson from the past. He also recruited a few experienced employees from major companies such as Boeing, who were determined to work hard.

Playing rockets in the live broadcast room can cause bleeding, and if you want to build rockets in the sky, you have to bleed hard. This hobby is not something that ordinary people can afford to play.

Musk invested $100 million, which is enough to launch the rocket four or five times. He named the company's first rocket "Falcon 1", inspired by the famous movie "Star Wars", the Millennium Falcon.

For this rocket, the company operates at full capacity from top to bottom, working 20 hours a day and 6 days a week, even crazier than the current "996".

But I have always been tense and afraid of problems. Every Sunday evening at 8 o'clock, everyone can take a break to catch their breath and play video games or something.

At the end of 2005, the rocket was finally ready for launch, but an operational error caused internal damage to the rocket and had to dismantle the first stage for repairs;

After finally completing the repair, the ignition test failed again and could only be checked again. By March 2006, the rocket was finally about to be launched. Only a loud bang was heard, and the rocket soared into the sky. About 25 seconds later, the engine suddenly caught fire, and the rocket began to sway in the air, eventually losing control and falling to the ground.

Most of the wreckage fell into the reef near the launch pad, and the satellite equipment carried by the rocket shattered the roof of the company's workshop. The first launch of Falcon 1 failed like this.

In March 2007, Falcon 1 took off again. A few minutes ago, everything was normal, but three minutes after the second stage ignited, the rocket began to sway in the air again and eventually crashed again.

In February 2008, the third launch failed again.

Although failure is the mother of success, it is also disappointing that success is always the "child". Many old irons in the company have broken down and cried uncontrollably on the spot, just like the end of the world.

At a critical moment, Musk rushed to appease the employees and announced to the media that we must never give up and continue to try the fourth and fifth launch. We believe that one day we will succeed!

However, although Musk swore his word, he didn't know the bottom of his heart. The main reason was that the money was almost burned out, and some employees saw that the company had no future, so they switched jobs and sought new jobs. The situation was both short of people and money, which was a bit difficult to handle.

Musk wanted to give it another shot. He mortgaged all his assets, and even company employees contributed to the rocket, investing tens of thousands of dollars. On September 28, 2008, Falcon 1 was launched for the fourth time.

This time Musk also took on some new tricks and created a global online live broadcast, focusing on the idea of success or failure.

On the day of launch, Musk was too nervous to look and took his children to Disneyland in advance.

However, just two minutes before the launch, he still rushed back to the company and stood in front of the rocket launch control console.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly during the launch and the rocket successfully entered its intended orbit! The aerospace industry has entered a new era as rockets are no longer exclusive to the state, and private enterprises can also take a share of the pie! Musk's company has also become the world's first private company to master rocket launch technology.

Good news one after another, and soon, the company won a $1.6 billion contract from NASA to transport goods to the International Space Station, becoming a true "cargo carrying" company.

The launch was successful, but Musk was not satisfied either.

At that time, rockets were mostly disposable items, and the design was convenient, but it was too expensive. Every time a new rocket was launched, we had to redo it from scratch. Even if we had money, we couldn't do this trick.

Musk didn't want to use it and throw it away. He decided to develop reusable rocket technology to land the rocket at the designated location and send people on the ground to recycle it. This small goal was later achieved.

However, Musk's ultimate goal is to enable humans to live on Mars, and for this reason, his company has developed projects such as dragon spacecraft and starships.

On April 5, 2011, Musk announced for the first time the plan for the heavy Falcon rocket at the National News Club in the United States

Unfortunately, on April 20, 2023, the largest new super heavy rocket in human history, the Starship, launched by Musk, exploded a few minutes after a test flight.

Billions of dollars suddenly evaporated again. However, Musk still did not give up on his Mars dream.

I think as a spectator, perhaps one should not give up on onlookers so early. After all, as a business genius and madman, Musk has created many business miracles that can turn the tide. He has also ignited countless people's passion for space with his own persistence. Who dares to say that such investment is meaningless?

Editor: Xie Jiaman

Source of materials: Internet

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