Elon musk lives in. What is Elon musk famous for?

Only the lazy do not speak about the outstanding figure of modern technologies and achievements. Elon Musk is a modern genius. His quotes have become popular, his incredible dreams are becoming reality, and his achievements are benefiting people today.

What kind of education are you thinking about? Quite often, when people hear this word, they think about university. Elon Musk's education began much earlier. At the age of 3-4 he said: “Where does the world end and begin?” Not every child thinks about such global issues.

His self-education began quite early - at the age of 8 he read all the books in the library, after which he began studying Britannica, the oldest English-language universal encyclopedia. It’s hard to imagine how one can devote 10 hours a day to reading, but this was Elon’s favorite hobby. His amazing photographic memory allowed him to remember a lot of new information.

After his parents' divorce, Elon stayed with his father. The boy spent the first years of his life in South Africa. He was an introverted and peculiar boy; for example, Elon Musk acted as if he were deaf as a child, although he was not. At school he could not stand up for himself, he was beaten. One day, Elon was thrown down the stairs and his nose was broken. His relationships with his peers never went well. Probably, the divorce affected the boy, who was immersed in his hobby and did not like to communicate.

Elon was given his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20, when he was 10 years old. He used it for programming. He completed the BASIC course, designed for 6 months, in 3 days. The habit of learning new things and understanding them came in handy in this matter. This is probably why Elon Musk wrote the game Blaster at the age of 12, which he sold for $500.

Elon Musk. New stage

At the age of 14, Elon is struck by an existential crisis and reads The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, deciding that his mission is to save humanity. Trying to avoid being drafted into the South African army and dreaming with all his heart about Canada, Elon and his brother emigrate to Canada. No one was waiting for him in the country, so for the first year he was constantly looking for work. Elon Musk even worked in a sawmill in his youth for low pay - $18 an hour. He had to crawl through a narrow tunnel that he could barely fit into, then throw hot coals, sand and dirt through it. It is impossible to go somewhere. It is noteworthy that by the end of the week, out of 30 people working there, only 3 remained, including Musk himself. He took on any job, even one completely unrelated to his area of ​​interest.

Elon Musk and the universities where he studied

For the last six months spent in South Africa, Elon studied physics at the University of Pretoria. The thirst for knowledge did not subside. While he was in Canada, in Kingston, he decided to study at Queen's University. After that, having left for the USA, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he received two bachelor's degrees at once: in physics from the School of Arts and Sciences and in economics from the Wharton Business School. Elon later studied at Stanford, where he planned to get a PhD, but dropped out. At that time, the Internet fever was gaining momentum, he decided that the future belonged to the global network, and not to scientific degrees.

Elon Musk. Quotes

Elon Musk’s expressions have already become popular. Young people strive to imitate him; his apt phrases inspire: “I didn’t expect that I could earn money. It was enough for me to earn enough to cover the rent and buy some food.” Through his example, he shows that our dreams can be much deeper than it seems at first glance. One cannot but agree with the simplicity of his thoughts, which motivates. For example, “It’s okay to make mistakes. The main thing is to make mistakes in something new every time.”

Another quote for inspiration:

“I can either watch it happen or be a part of it.”

He proves by personal example that the best way to change the world is to start with yourself. He also has a humorous phrase with a deep meaning: “I would like to die on Mars, but without crashing on its surface.”

The biography of this person is unique and at the same time interesting. It is impossible to remain silent about him. He breaks stereotypes and makes breakthroughs. Read Elon Musk's Twitter and be the first to know about his achievements and breakthroughs

Tomorrow, SpaceX will launch two satellites to test internet for the entire planet. What was the hero of all the latest news, Elon Musk, like as a child and why is he launching the Internet, rockets, building electric cars and planning to colonize Mars?

Elon Musk won’t succeed - that’s what the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, said. But so far the most innovative technologies are associated with Musk’s name: the largest online payment system, an auto company that has challenged industry giants, the Internet for the entire Earth, and even the colonization of Mars.

Elon's ancestors were Swiss Germans

They moved to the States during the Revolutionary War and from there to Canada. In 1950, Musk's parents moved to South Africa. Elon was born and raised there.

He started programming and business as a child.

One of the most successful businessmen of our time was a typical nerd as a child: he read a lot and was reluctant to make contact with his peers. Plus he had a photographic memory like Sheldon Cooper. They didn’t like him at school, once the guy was beaten and broken nose.

When Elon was 10, his father gave him a computer. The boy taught himself to program and two years later, at the age of 12, he sold his own computer game for $500. Musk later invested in shares, and when he sold them, he was able to afford to move to Canada. There he lived with relatives until he entered Stanford University. True, he soon dropped out of school for business.

Even as a young man, Musk wanted to change the world

While studying in college, he decided that he would do what would most change the fate of humanity. Grandiose plans required money, and while Musk was launching his first company, Zip2, he lived in the office and went to the local stadium to shower. This saved money on rent and supported the startup.

PayPal has changed online payments

The company was created as a result of the merger of Musk's startup X.com and its competitor Confinity. The company appeared in the early 2000s, when business on the Internet was synonymous with technology, and the possibilities of non-cash payments were limited to bank cards.

Although the partners had different views on the management and development of the project, the cooperation was so productive that in 2002 the company bought it on eBay. Elon Musk used the proceeds to prepare for his main dream - a flight to Mars.

Tesla Motors challenges auto giants

Elon Musk was not the founder of the company, but it was he who made it successful and famous throughout the world. Musk believes that the world is too dependent on hydrocarbons and seeks to rid humanity of this dependence. From the very beginning, the company was conceived as the first serial manufacturer of electric vehicles and an alternative to oil energy.

Musk participated in the development of the company's first electric car, the Tesla Roadster, and when it turned out that due to miscalculations the model would be twice as expensive as planned, production costs and even fired the company's founders. To support the company financially, he had to sell his beloved McLaren F1 car. The investment of effort and money was not in vain: in 2010, Tesla held its first automobile IPO in the United States in 50 years.

Hyperloop: train at airplane speed

Another ambitious project by Musk. If flying is expensive and the train ride is long, you can fly by train. The speed of the new type of transport is already being tested , which is comparable to the fastest magnetic levitation trains. In the future, the maximum speed will be about 1200 km/h.

Hyperloop is a pipe standing on supports with evacuated air to reduce drag. A sealed capsule with people inside is moving in the pipe. All necessary energy will be generated by solar panels installed along the route.

Musk will use the developments of his other projects in the Hyperloop: Tesla electronics, SolarCity solar panels and SpaceX durable alloys. Many of the solutions that will be used in Hyperloop are already used, for example, in magnetic levitation trains.

Twitter Bet: Musk Built a Giant Battery

Last year, Australia declared an energy emergency due to gas shortages and rising energy prices. Then Musk argued on Twitter with the Australian government that he could build a huge 100 MW battery, costing $390 million, in a hundred days, which could store and redirect electricity in case of power outages. If he doesn’t meet the deadlines, he promised, he will implement the project for free.

The battery was designed ahead of schedule, and at the end of December 2017 it was tested in action. After an accident at a local power plant, the battery lack of electricity.

SpaceX: reusable rockets and spacecraft

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. The company's main goal is to make space flights cheap enough to colonize Mars. To do this, the company designed reusable Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft. The company uses components of its own design, which allows it to reduce prices and control quality.

The first three launches of Falcon rockets ended in failure. But in April 2016, a Falcon 9 rocket landed on a floating platform for the first time. This opened a new era in space exploration because it made it possible to reuse rockets.

And on February 6 of this year, Falcon Heavy rockets capable of launching into orbit successfully landed (almost three times more than the shuttle).

This is the first high-lift rocket capable of returning to Earth. Its launch costs $90 million - two and a half times cheaper than launching the shuttle.

Starlink: Internet for the whole Earth

The idea to provide the entire planet with Internet appeared in 2015. Musk plans to first launch 800 satellites that will cover the US territory, and bring their number to 4,425, combining them into a system called Starlink. It will provide access to the World Wide Web in places where the Internet was previously unavailable: in remote areas or in the mountains. In this case, the system will be able to redirect the signal to areas with heavy traffic.

The satellites will be in low-Earth orbit, lower than conventional geostationary satellites. This is necessary to speed up signal transmission: modern satellite providers have a delay of about 600 milliseconds, and Musk expects 25-35 ms and a speed of 1 Gbit/s.

Of course, the businessman is not doing all this out of pure philanthropy: if the Starlink project succeeds, it will bring the company $30 billion, which is twice as much as today’s high-speed Internet industry leader Comcast earns. Part of Musk's funds focus on its most ambitious project - the colonization of Mars.

What is this all for: populating Mars

In June 2017, the businessman announced that he was going to colonize Mars. In his opinion, necessary in order to protect us from a possible global catastrophe. That is, the businessman decided to diversify risks as usual, but now across different planets: if something happens to one, people on the other will survive.

For this purpose, an Interplanetary Transport System with reusable ships will be created. Nowadays, most rockets are disposable. Imagine if for each new trip you would have to buy a new car.

The flight to Mars will be divided into two phases: first, a reusable launch vehicle will launch spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. There will be about 100 people on board each of the thousand ships. There they will wait for the closest approach between Earth and Mars, which happens every 26 months, and then take off. The first man could land on Mars as early as 2024, and in 50-100 years the population of the Red Planet could reach 1 million people.

To prevent the flight to Mars from turning into a voluntary exile, they will also establish movement in the opposite direction. For this they use Martian resources: they will produce fuel from methane. The ships can be refueled directly in orbit. Thanks to this and repeated use, the cost of the flight will be in the region .

Even his colleagues didn’t believe in his achievements

As Tesla began to compete with gasoline cars and challenge the oil industry, the traditional auto industry said electric cars would forever remain a hobbyist fad.

Today, the largest auto giants produce electric cars and hybrids; at the end of last year, their number in the world exceeded , and by the end of this it will exceed 5 million. Already today, a third of the cars on the roads in China and Norway are electric cars.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong opposed commercial space flights, and famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson that SpaceX will not be able to make a flight to Mars, primarily due to a lack of money: Musk does not have the necessary funds, and the flight itself does not promise benefits for which investors would be interested in investing in the project.

Be that as it may, the recent launch and successful landing of two of the three Falcon Heavy super-heavy rockets has already changed ideas about the cost of space flights, and has collapsed orders for Russian Proton rockets.

How did he do it?

From early childhood, little Elon infuriated his parents with doubts in any of their words and arguments, trying to get to the bottom of things and asking endless questions. His education as a physicist and economist made him a techno-perfectionist with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Musk is good at finding unusual solutions to problems and believes that people's habit of thinking in standard patterns is the main obstacle to innovation. When he needed a theodolite to level the rocket, he bought a used one on the Internet and saved $25 thousand. And he got the idea to build his own rockets when it turned out that it was very expensive to deliver cargo to Mars using existing spacecraft.

Elon Musk's recipe for success is as simple to define as it is difficult to follow. A good education. Ability to ask the right questions. Meticulousness and an unconventional view of the world. The ability to go ahead, despite criticism. And most importantly, a big dream that has become a goal.

Take a look at the main episodes of Elon Musk's biography:

Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa.

“Elon has always been an introvert. Where most people would go to a great party, Elon would rather spend time in the library reading. For him they were entertainment. Once, at the age of 3-4 years, he asked a question: “Where does the whole world begin and end?". Questions like these made me understand that he thinks in a special way,” — Elon’s father Errol Musk shared his memories in an interview.

Elon's mother, Maye Musk, is a Canadian-born professional model whose face has appeared on cereal packages. Special K and magazine cover Time.

In 1979, parents Errol and Maye Musk divorced. 9-year-old Elon and his younger brother Kimbal decided to stay with their father.

In 1983, at the age of 12, Elon sold his first written game to a computer magazine called Blastar for 500 dollars. Musk himself considered that game trivial.

The young researcher's school years were not the best. In the book by Ashley Vance "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and a quest into a fantastic future" tells the story of how Musk was hospitalized when a group of bullies at school pulled him down the stairs and beat him unconscious.

After graduation, Elon, along with his mother Maye, sister Tosca and brother Kimbal, moved to. He spent the next 2 years studying at Queens University in the city of Kingston in the Canadian province of Ontario.

However, Elon began to continue his studies at, where he received degrees in physics and economics.

While studying in Pennsylvania, Elon and his university friend Adeo Ressi rented a 10-room house, which they sometimes turned into a real nightclub. This was an early entrepreneurial experiment for both students.

After graduating from the university, Elon decided to continue his studies to obtain an academic degree. PhD(PhD) in , but ultimately gave up this idea and decided to test his luck in the beginning Internet fever. Elon Musk will never remember studying at Stanford again.

Elon and his brother Kimbal (pictured below) took $28,000 from their father's budget to start the company Zip2— a web startup that provided city travel guides to such newspapers as New York Times And Chicago Tribune .

According to Musk, while the company Zip2 got back on his feet, he literally lived in the office and showered at the local branch of a youth volunteer organization YMCA . All these efforts will be richly rewarded when the company Compaq will acquire Zip2 behind $ 341 000 000 .

Photo: Noah Berger | REUTERS

Elon Musk’s own budget after the deal will be $22 million, half of which in 1999 the young entrepreneur will spend on founding another company in the field of online banking - X.com. A year later the project will merge with a startup Confinity, which by that time had been founded by Peter Thiel. This merger will create a new company, which will be called PayPal.

Elon Musk was appointed to the post of CEO of the newly created company PayPal. But after some time, serious quarrels would arise within the project: Elon insisted on switching the company’s servers from a free operating system Unix on the product, which the chief technical director did not agree with PayPal Max Levchin (pictured).

Photo: Getty | Drew Anger

In 2000, Musk took his first vacation in a long time. While Elon was there, the board of directors PayPal decided to fire him and made Peter Thiel the new CEO.

“That’s the problem with holidays.”, - Elon will joke later in one of his interviews.

However, Musk will remain one of the largest shareholders PayPal, which would bring him $165 million of the $1.5 billion he would pay for it in 2002 PayPal company eBay.

Even before the sale PayPal A sci-fi buff, Musk has already toyed with the idea of ​​sending mice or plants to Mars. He even tried to acquire decommissioned Soviet missiles for these purposes. But a Russian seller wanted more than $8 million for the rocket, prompting Musk to consider building his own cheaper version.

In 2002, Elon Musk founded a company known as Space Exploration Technologies or simply SpaceX. Musk's goal will be to develop processes that will help make space flights more accessible.

Photo: Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

The first devices SpaceX will become Falcon 1, named after the spaceship Millennium Falcon from the movie "Star Wars"..

..and the ship SpaceX Dragon, named after the song "Puff the Magic Dragon". With this name, Elon Musk wanted to answer all the skeptics who claimed that SpaceX will never be able to launch a spacecraft.

In the long term the goal SpaceX is the colonization of Mars. In an interview, Musk noted that he would not withdraw shares SpaceX for an IPO (initial public offering) until the Colonial Transporter to Mars makes regular flights.

At the same time, Elon Musk still has quite a few tasks on Earth. In 2004, he made his first investment of $70 million in Tesla Motors- a production company that he co-founded with one of the most experienced executive managers, Martin Eberhard.

Elon Musk took an active role in working on the company's products and also took over as chairman. He also helped develop the first electric car - Tesla Roadster, the release of the first version of which began in 2006.

Photo: Scott Olson | Getty Images

Since this was not enough, in 2006 Musk implemented the idea SolarCity- a production company whose products were supposed to help in the fight against. To develop the company, Elon Musk recruited his cousins ​​Peter and Lyndon Rive.

Getting back to business Tesla, everything did not go quite as Elon himself expected. Under the leadership of Eberhard Tesla burned more financial resources than it was able to bring in. In 2007, at Musk’s initiative, Eberhard was removed from further work at one of the board meetings.

In 2008, with the advent of the global financial crisis, Musk had to invest $40 million in Tesla and borrow another $40 million to avoid bankruptcy of the company. In the same year, Musk became CEO Tesla, which, of course, is not accidental.

That year the company SpaceX, Tesla And SolarCity completely ruined Musk. He describes 2008 as the worst year of his life, as Tesla still continued to lose money, and SpaceX encountered problems launching the rocket Falcon 1. By 2009, Elon was surviving only on personal loans.

Photo: Bobby Yip | REUTERS

Around the same time, Elon Musk was going through a divorce from his first wife Justine Musk, a Canadian writer who gave him 6 sons.

2008 brings two good news to Elon: SpaceX receives a $1.5 billion contract with NASA for space flights, and for business Tesla finally there are external investors.

By 2010, the situation was changing seriously again: in June of that year Tesla valued at $226 million at IPO, becoming the first to go public since Ford in 1956. At this point, Elon sells $15 million worth of company shares in order to return his financial condition to normal.

Photo: Brendan McDermid | REUTERS

Elon Musk's extraordinary career has become visible in other circles as well. Tony Stark's image from "Iron Man" was partially based on the real life of Elon. Moreover, in the second part of the film, Musk himself appears in the frame.

All this time, Elon’s personal life was filled with a series of different events. In 2008, he began dating actress Talulah Riley. They will get married in 2010 and divorce in 2012. By July 2013, they will get married again, but in December 2014, Elon Musk will file for divorce again, although he will take the documents back later. Riley will file for divorce in March 2016.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain | Getty Images

Things will go well with work during that period. By the end of 2015 SpaceX will make 24 successful launches to the International Space Station, doing a lot of research in the process. Some time later Falcon 9 will make the first successful landing of a reusable orbital rocket on a water platform.

Ideas still never stop coming to Elon Musk. Despite the movement towards the development of solar energy, electric vehicles and the colonization of Mars, Musk began developing a new project called Hyperloop— a transport system capable of moving passengers over significant distances at speeds of more than 1000 km/h.

Elon Musk is convinced that in the near future humanity may face the threat of losing control over artificial intelligence, and therefore at the end of 2015 the entrepreneur presented another - OpenAI , the purpose of which will be development monitoring.

Photo: jurvetson | Flickr

At the beginning of 2016, it became known about another incredible project of Elon Musk - for the production of lithium-ion batteries, the area of ​​which will be more than 300,000 square meters. The Gigafactory is expected to be able to produce more batteries than all similar factories around the world combined. The launch of the project is scheduled for 2020.

In June 2016, Elon Musk presented his , with the goal of combining its two largest energy projects “under one roof.” The $2.6 billion deal was later confirmed in August.

In December 2016, Elon Musk founded another business - THE BORING COMPANY— a drilling and construction company whose tasks will be the creation of underground infrastructure in busy cities, thanks to which residents and motorists will be able to avoid traffic jams, as well as assistance in the development of high-speed train projects Hyperloop.

Canadian-American inventor, engineer, entrepreneur and investor Elon Musk is not only the real image of Tony Stark from the film “Iron Man”. This brilliant inventor and leader managed to bring a fantastic future closer and speed up the path to it.

Brief biography of Elon Musk

Elon Musk (full name: Elon (Elon) Reeves Musk) was born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. His father - Errol Musk, African engineer and entrepreneur. His mother - May Haldman, a popular Canadian nutritionist.

Young programmer

At the age of ten, Elon received his first computer as a gift and learned to program on it. At the age of 12 he sold his first program for $500, a video game called Blast Star, in which the player fired at rows of aliens with a laser cannon.

Moving to Canada

After graduating from school in South Africa, Elon Musk decides to go to Canada, contrary to the opinions of his parents. At first he had money for an independent life - he was already at that time successfully invested in pharmaceuticals.

Elon settled in Canada with his mother's relatives in 1989. Having received Canadian citizenship, Elon Musk goes to Montreal, where at first he agrees to any job and teeters on the brink of poverty for almost a year.

Moving to the USA

In 1992 Elon Reeves Musk is finally realizing his dream and moving to the United States, having received a scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania. The following year he received his bachelor's degree in business, but decided to stay at the university for another year to obtain a bachelor's degree in physics.

Main question

Every person in life has a number of questions about his purpose and the future of all humanity. Elon Musk asked the same question. And in the end I decided that The future of humanity will be affected by:

…internet, transition to renewable energy sources
and the relocation of people to other planets...

He decided to try to contribute in each of these directions. But first he needed money.

Zip2 success

In 1995, Musk and his brother founded the company Zip2, which specialized in software for news companies. In 1999, Zip2 was acquired Compaq for 308 million dollars. Elon received 7% of the sale amount – $22 million.

At the time of the company’s creation, the global web was developing rapidly, but no one had yet managed to truly make money on the Internet.Zip2 was one of the very first to do this.

X.com and PayPal

After selling his first company, Elon Musk decides to master electronic payments and creates his own startup X.com. In March 2000, X.com merged on a parity basis with a competitor company Confinity Peter Thiel and Max Levchin.

This merger subsequently leads to the emergence of the now famous payment system - PayPal. In 2002, a popular service bought the online auction eBay for $1.5 billion. Elon received $180 million from this deal.

Investments and management in Tesla Motors

In 2004, Elon, with cash from selling PayPal, invested $70 million in the project TeslaMotors. This company attracted his attention because it was developing electric cars. Alternative energy sources - this was in the spirit of Musk's principles.

The main driver of Tesla's financial success was its luxury sedan Model S with a battery charge of 426 km, a bright design and unique speed characteristics (acceleration to 96 km/h in 3.9 s). The model was put into mass production at a price of $69,900 and was highly rated by Consumer Reports.

Founding of SpaceX

At the turn of the millennium, an ambitious entrepreneur and inventor thought about creating a flying ship that could reusable for traveling people into space and to other planets.

The moment Elon Musk's financial fortune increased, he decided to start making this dream come true. His brainchild in this area was the company SpaceX(full name: Space Exploration Technologies Company). The company was founded in 2002.

He invested more than $100 million in the project. The cost of proposals on the market - from $15 million for a rocket in Russia to $65 million in the USA - was considered by the entrepreneur to be many times too high. That is why he decided to build his own spacecraft.

SpaceX's first successes

Despite all the difficulties and setbacks, SpaceX managed to create two types of potentially reusable launch vehicles: Falcon 1 And Falcon 9, as well as a reusable spacecraft Dragon.

Contract with NASA

In December 2008 NASA signed a contract with the company in the amount of 1.6 billion US dollars for 12 launches of the Falcon 9 carrier and the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, as a replacement for the ships Space Shuttle after the termination of their launch program in 2011.

Expedition to Mars

For Elon Musk, all the current achievements of SpaceX are just preparation for the realization of his main dream - expeditions to Mars. Until the end of his life, the billionaire wants to become a pioneer colonizer of the “red” planet. To this end, SpaceX is developing a project Mars Colonial Transporter(MCP).

Musk's engineers are working on innovative rocket engines and spacecraft to take people from Earth to Mars. The ambitious entrepreneur announced that he would carry out his expedition in 2020-25.

Based on the Falcon, it is planned to create the Grasshoper rocket, which can land vertically, and the second generation Dragon is technically already capable of getting to Mars, Musk assures.

Using the example of Elon Musk, we can trace the path of a person making childhood dreams come true, because many people in childhood wanted to fly into space, and soon this will be possible.

Business has come to astronautics, and many will benefit from this, because space tourism will soon become a reality, including thanks to Elon Musk.

Elon Musk

Elon Reeve Musk. Born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria (South Africa). Canadian-American engineer, entrepreneur, inventor, investor, billionaire. Founder of SpaceX, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tesla Motors.

Mother - May Musk, was a model, has two higher educations, and worked as a nutritionist for 45 years. At 21, she became a finalist in the Miss South Africa beauty pageant. At 69 years old.

His parents divorced and the boy remained to live with his father, who had his own business. At school, Elon was subjected to violence from his peers; after one of the beatings, he had to have his broken nose repaired.

At the age of ten, Elon received his first Commodore VIC-20 computer as a gift and learned to program on it. At age twelve, he sold his first program for $500, a Space Invaders-style video game called Blast Star, in which the player blasted rows of aliens with a laser gun.

Musk invested in shares of a pharmaceutical company that he followed through newspapers. With the proceeds of several thousand dollars from the sale of shares, he leaves for Canada, despite the protests of his parents.

Before attending university, he lived with relatives in Kingston, Ontario. Over time, he transferred to Stanford, but did not complete his studies.

In 1996-1997, Musk and his brother founded the company Zip2, which specialized in software for news companies.

In 1999, Zip2 was acquired by Compaq for $308 million. Musk received 7% of the sale amount - $22 million.

In March 1999, Musk became one of the founders X.com. In 2000, X.com merged with Confinity, one of whose branches was called PayPal. Both systems (X.com and PayPal) were engaged in providing personal electronic money transfers via email, and the purpose of the deal was to merge both payment systems, but in fact this did not happen.

Musk strongly advocated for the X.com brand instead of PayPal, which caused internal disagreements that ultimately ended with Musk's resignation by decision of the Board of Directors. However, Elon's strategic decision to merge the two companies, along with the active promotion of electronic payment systems on Internet auctions (primarily eBay), led to the rapid growth of the business in 2001, which was finally renamed PayPal.

Such impressive results allowed the company to place shares on the stock exchange in February 2002 (and at the same time become the first dot-com company to go public after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001).

In October 2002, PayPal was purchased by eBay for US$1.5 billion. At the time of the sale, Musk owned 11.7% of the company's shares, which allowed him to gain $165 million.

In June 2002, Musk founded his third company - SpaceX. It is a private developer of a series of launch vehicles and a commercial operator of space systems.

In December 2008, NASA signed a $1.6 billion contract with the company for 12 launches of the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, as a replacement for the Space Shuttle after its launch program ended in 2011.

According to Elon himself, he was greatly influenced by the series of science fiction novels “Foundation” and his views on space exploration as the development and preservation of human existence. Musk argued that the spread of life to several planets could serve as a defense against the threat of human extinction.

“An asteroid or supervolcano can destroy us, and in addition we are exposed to risks never dreamed of by dinosaurs: an artificially created virus, the accidental appearance of a microscopic black hole as a result of a physical experiment, catastrophic global warming, or some destructive technology unknown to date could "To end our existence. It took millions of years for humanity to develop, but in the last sixty years atomic weapons have created the potential for self-destruction. Sooner or later, our lives will have to move beyond this blue-green ball - or we will become extinct.", says Musk.

Elon Musk has set a goal for himself to reduce the cost of space flights by 10 times. To do this, he founded SpaceX, investing $100 million in it, earned from the sale of his previous companies.

Elon Musk's flight plan to Mars:

In January 2016, at an investment forum in Hong Kong, Musk announced that his company hopes to fly to Mars in 2020-2025, in about 9 years.

Speaking at the congress of the International Astronautical Federation, he spoke of the need to develop an “interplanetary civilization” and announced plans to send a million people to Mars. Musk's speech was broadcast on the company's official website. SpaceX published a video about its projected interplanetary transport system (ITS), which simulated a manned flight to Mars.

"For a mission to Mars, a space system must meet four fundamental principles: It must be reusable, it must be capable of being refueled in orbit, the fuel for return to Earth must be available on the surface of Mars, and the fuel must be optimal for use "Musk explained.

According to the founder of SpaceX, the company's employees initially considered the possibility of using a hydrogen-oxygen engine, but came to the conclusion that an engine running on methane and oxygen would be most suitable for a Mars expedition.

During his speech, Musk emphasized the need to develop an “interplanetary civilization.”

“We can live on Earth and not move anywhere, or we can become an interplanetary civilization. The main goal is to create a settlement, a city on Mars. That’s when we can become an interplanetary species,” he explained.

The choice in favor of Mars as a planet that needs to be developed was due to the unsuitable conditions on Venus and the close location of Mercury to the sun, Musk noted. At the same time, he did not rule out that in the future humanity will be able to head to the satellites of Jupiter.

"If we go to the Moon, then we will not become an interplanetary civilization, because the Moon is a satellite. Previously, Mars was like the Earth is now. Mars receives enough sunlight, it has a fairly thin atmosphere. We will be able to grow plants on its surface ", noted the head of SpaceX.

Musk focused the attention of those gathered on the fact that 7 billion people live on Earth, and not a single one on Mars. “This needs to change,” he added.

The head of SpaceX added that the current cost of a flight to Mars is $10 billion, and this pricing policy needs to be changed. According to him, the flight should cost no more than 200 thousand dollars, that is, be comparable in cost to a house in the United States.

Presenting a model of a ship designed for flights to Mars, Musk said that each ship can be used 12-15 times, one ship can accommodate about 100 people along with their luggage. Over 10 thousand flights, the company plans to deliver 1 million people to Mars.

“From the moment of the first flight, we will need from 40 to 100 years to build an independent civilization on Mars,” Musk shared his plans. According to him, by 2035 it will be possible to fly to Mars in 80 days. Until now, not a single spacecraft has reached this planet in less than five months.

Elon Musk is the chairman of the board of the Musk Foundation, through which he makes his donations.

In January 2015, he donated $10 million to research on the control of artificial intelligence.

In 2008, Esquire magazine included Musk in its list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century.

In June 2011, he was awarded the Heinlein Prize for achievements in the commercialization of space worth 500 thousand US dollars.

In February of the same year, Forbes magazine included Musk in its list of the 20 most influential CEOs under the age of forty.

In November 2013, Fortune Magazine named him Businessman of the Year, and The Wall Street Journal named Musk CEO of the Year.

Elon Musk's height: 188 centimeters.

Personal life of Elon Musk:

First wife: Justin Musk. They studied together at university in Canada. We got married in 2000. The couple had five sons.

In September 2008, Elon and Justin announced their divorce.

In 2010, Musk married British actress Talulah Riley. In 2016, Elon Musk filed for divorce.

Musk owned an Aero L-39 Albatros aircraft made in Czechoslovakia.

He later bought a Dassault Falcon 900 jet.

After selling Zip2 in 1999, Musk bought a McLaren F1 supercar, but crashed it the following year when Peter Thiel was driving with him.

In October 2013, Musk bought the Wet Nellie submarine car from the 1977 James Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me” at auction for $997,000.

Wet Nellie Elon Musk

According to the director of the film “Iron Man” (2008), Jon Favreau, Elon Musk served as the prototype for Tony Stark, whom he played.

In 2010, Musk appeared in the film Iron Man 2 as himself. In the story, Elon is Tony Stark's friend.

In 2013, he also played himself in an episode of the film Machete Kills. Musk is seen among the audience attending the presentation of artificial intelligence in the sci-fi film Supremacy (2014), but his name is not in the credits.

Elon Musk voiced a cameo in season 26, episode 12 of the animated series The Simpsons, released on January 25, 2015.

He makes a cameo appearance in episode 9 of season 9 of The Big Bang Theory.