Quote Of The Week
“I think the thing that’s really interesting is if we can make the cost of moving to Mars roughly equal to the net worth of a middle class person in America, then I think it will just happen because there will enough people that will sell their stuff on earth and move to Mars – to be part of creating a new planet.” — Elon Musk
Photo from Nasa Johnson Quote from milesobrien.com
Elon Musk News
Immigrants Are Driving Billion-Dollar Startups, Study Finds
"Space X’s Elon Musk, Zenefits’ Laks Srini, Uber’s Garrett Camp, and Palentir’s Peter Thiel. They’re all founders of billion-dollar startups. They’re also all immigrants. And they’re not the only ones. A new study from a nonpartisan think tank says immigrants played a founding role in more than half of the 87 American startups with billion-dollar-plus valuations."
Tesla
Tesla Motors’ $35,000 Electric People’s Car: How Elon Musk’s Company Will Keep Model 3 Costs Down
"While the Model S and Model X have pricier aluminum frames, Tesla is likely deploying lower-priced metals, like steel. Frames can be built with a number of different alloys to help lower materials costs. In January, Tesla plucked materials engineering expert Charles Kuehmann from Apple Inc., the kind of expert you would need to efficiently build vehicle body frames."
Photo from atomic80
After considering Tesla, Uber reportedly placed an order with Mercedes for 100,000 self-driving cars
"Now that Uber seems to have decided to buy its future cars from Mercedes instead of Tesla, it could represent further indications that Tesla is looking to compete with Uber in the ride-sharing industry, or should I say autonomous ride-sharing industry."
Photo from Mercedes-Benz
Tesla stations in NYC on verge of outnumbering gas stations
"The expansion, green-lighted by Tesla founder Elon Musk, means there could soon be three times as many electric-car charging stations in Manhattan as gas stations."
Photo from Jason Lawrence
SpaceX
SpaceX Loads Iinflatable Habitat For Launch To The Space Station
"NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Monday, March 28, to discuss cutting edge science investigations launching aboard the upcoming SpaceX commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station. Experiments include the demonstration of an expandable space habitat, a student-designed DNA investigation, and other research that will inform NASA’s journey to Mars."
Photo from SpaceX Twitter
Elon Musk’s SpaceX will buy another $90 million in solar bonds from Solarcity (SCTY)
"SolarCity’s Solar Bond Program is looking more and more like SpaceX’s private investment platform. After market close yesterday, SolarCity revealed in a SEC filling that it expects Elon Musk’s rocket company to buy $90 million of the $105 million in new Solar Bonds issued."
Hyperloop
Hyperloop Construction Begins Summer 2016 in California
"The first five-mile stretch of Elon Musk's Hyperloop high-speed transport system begins this summer in Quay Valley, California."
Photo from Hyperloop Technologies
SolarCity
Elon Musk and SolarCity CEO organized an event for Nevada lawmakers at Tesla’s Gigafactory to lobby for solar energy
"In an effort to lobby Nevada lawmakers for the development of solar energy following the Public Utilities Commission’s decision to slash net metering, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive organized an event Wednesday night at the Gigafactory for Nevada politicians and top government officials. Tesla and SolarCity executives held presentations meant to be 'forward-looking and educational' and the whole event also included a tour of the Gigafactory."