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Advancing Society: Elon Musk

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Montclair chapter.

Do you ever feel lucky to be human? We are unique individuals who are able to do and create in ways no other species could even dream of doing! Thanks to our extensive cognitive skills, personality, and creativity, people are enabled to proposer adversity and conquer a vast array of challenges. Creativity is what has allowed us to progress at the rate we do and innovators are the people who continue to advance society into a better future.

Elon Musk is one of those extraordinary innovators who wants to help reinvent infrastructure and revolutionize technology for the welfare of society. Elon Musk rose to fame as a multi-millionaire after selling most of his computer start-up company Zip2 1999, which allowed companies to post directory listings on the internet. Now, Musk is part of many different project companies such as SpaceX, Paypal, Tesla Inc., Hyperloop, SolarCity, OpenAl, The Boring Company, The Musk Foundation, DeepMind, Neuralink, and Zip2. All of these companies introduce new ambitious ideas that are primarily progressively rooted original projects. He spends countless hours working with his current companies, but Musk predominantly focuses his efforts on two main project companies: Tesla Inc. and SpaceX.

Many people refer to Elon Musk as the founder of the electric-automated car company Tesla Inc; however, Musk actually joined the Tesla Team in 2003 with Tesla’s founding engineer Martin Eberhard. Musk became the CEO of Tesla in 2008 and is currently successfully running the company. Tesla Motors is a company that focuses on the mass-production of affordable electric cars that can run 250 miles on one charge of a lithium ion battery that traditional cars run on. Tesla teamed up with Toyota and in April 2017, has become the most valuable car market, exceeding General Motors! 

Mass-produced, affordable electric cars seems to be Elon Musk’s calling, but what about reduced space travel costs? Sounds good to me! Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. Ten years later, SpaceX’s Dragon was introduced as the world’s first privately funded liquid-propelled rocket to make it to the International Space Station. There have been 3 more successful flights since 2012 hitting many milestones: carrying a satellite into orbit to match the Earth’s rotation, launching a Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite, working with NASA to observe solar emissions (that could have potential to affect our electric grid), and lastly a flight and landing made from reusable parts (necessary to lower costs). 

Although Musk is an advantageous businessman, he also contributes to humanitarian efforts. Currently, he is working on reinventing Puerto Rico’s electricity grid to run off of completely renewable energy. Puerto Rico was recently devastated by hurricane Maria making the small country almost uninhabitable! Helping Puerto Rico get back on its feet after such a catastrophe is just another one of Elon Musk’s great initiatives for a brighter future.

Reach for the stars, creativity is leading our future and it has never looked more electrifying.

 

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3

Danielle has held various positions at Her Campus Montclair. Starting as a Contributing Writer during her sophomore year at MSU in 2015, she later became President & Editor-in-Chief during her senior year in 2017. She completed her B.A. in Communication & Media Arts with a minor in Leadership Development at Montclair State University in January 2018. Besides writing, she's a lover of cozy cafés, good lyrics, inspiring speeches, mountainous retreats, and sunsets on the skyline. She enjoys capturing the moment and has a passion for travel and discovery. You can often find her exploring NYC or venturing to one of her favorite East Coast spots.