Few Weeks in Musk World

To me the biggest thing in Musk World these past few weeks has been the unveiling of Neuralink.

I have to admit that a billionaire who can read people's minds through technology and control their vehicles has a bit of a Doctor Who Rise of the Cybermen vibe to it.

Somehow I wasn't even aware of Ad Astra's existence. A minor foray into education by Elon Musk but somehow its now the most sought after and exclusive private school in California. (And what better way for an "evil" billionaire in a science fiction story to groom his technology henchmen? Just saying the narrative is veering scarily close to a decent Terminator, Battlestar Galactica or Borg storyline.) Only partially kidding.

A reminder that Tesla's success selling cars in the US is happening despite anti-free market roadblocks still set up in many states. And despite 68% of respondents to a JD Power survey saying they've had no experience with electric vehicles. So very impressive!

The Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada is bigger than you expect. When it is finally complete it will have the largest footprint of any building in the world!

Some of that space is possibly going to be used to make the Megapack utility scaled battery back-up system which was unveiled last week. I think this is another winner from team Musk. It is tough to keep up with all the technologies they are leapfrogging the competition on.

Elon Musk and SpaceX got some exposure last week on CBS Sunday Morning. A nice dovetail interview to go along with the Apollo 11 anniversary.

Couple of weeks ago SpaceX also successfully launched its 18th commercial cargo mission to the International Space Station on Thursday and successfully docked with the ISS that Saturday.

Also this week SpaceX announced a small sat "rideshare" program for smaller satellites. The pricing on these missions should be much less than traditional satellite launching services.

Musk says that the Starship and Super Heavy (BFR) combo will have 41 Raptor engines. This will give it more than double the thrust capacity of NASA's Saturn V rockets. That much thrust would destroy existing launch pads. So SpaceX will be creating new, better launch pads in Texas and Florida.

NASA selects SpaceX as one of 13 companies they will be working with on their Moon and Mars missions. And Europe admits that the SpaceX model of reusable rockets is the way to go.

And not to forget The Boring Company news - Elon Musk to attend Conference on AI in China at the end of the month where he will also be launching The Boring Company China.

This Week in Musk World

Tomorrow is the target date for a Falcon 9 to launch 60 Starlink satellites (the 60 satellite payload is pictured left). To be honest, of all of Elon Musk's projects - this is the one that makes me most skeptical.

Most commercial communication satellites are launched knowing their transponders are 100% sold and as long as the launch is successful a profit is all but guaranteed (and an unsuccessful launch is covered by insurance). Starlink seems to be an "if I build it people will come" project for Musk. Perhaps there's something more going on behind the curtains but like I said - I'm skeptical.

Staying in SpaceX world - there was a problem with a parachute test on Crew Dragon in April. With President Trump adding $1.6 billion to NASA's 2020 budget it looks like issues like this will get magnified (and rightfully so when manned flight is involved). However, the amount of politics involved in any NASA decisions will also get magnified (and not rightfully so).

A cartoonist explains what it's like to own a Tesla Model S. Things like this just expand the legend of Tesla. Can you imagine any better advertising? Not that Tesla uses advertising (which is a whole other can of worms and why I think much of Tesla's coverage in traditional media may be slanted against them).

Meanwhile Tesla battery partner Panasonic debunks rumors about alleged Gigafactory 1 conflicts. There is still excess capacity at Gigafactory 1 for more batteries to serve the North American and European markets. It makes sense business and politically-wise to research a "local" Chinese battery supplier for Gigafactory 3. This seems to be a nothing story rebuttal made necessary by those who would try to find issue with Tesla no matter what.

This Week in Musk World

Another busy week in Musk World.

Tesla has now achieved production rates of 1,000 Model 3's a day. If Tesla is able to keep this up then the $35,000 Model 3 could be a reality as soon as May of 2019.

1,000 Model 3's a day is impressive but that's nothing compared to the 3.5 million battery cells produced by the GigaFactory which as this video points out is Elon Musk's key to Tesla's future.

Solving production issues has allowed the Model 3 to become the 4th best selling car in the US by volume and the best selling passenger car by revenue. The success of the Model 3 has spelled doom for hybrid electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt. GM vows that they will be jumping into the all-electric car market with both feet in the coming years. But based upon the continued progress of Elon Musk and Tesla - they might be too late.

The cars Tesla is producing are getting used in the real world with the company announcing over 10 billion miles have been driven in Tesla cars already. With an amazing 1 billion miles being driven while under the autopilot feature. And Tesla keeps on rolling out improvements to its Navigate and Autopilot functions. 

It wasn't all roses this week in Musk World though. Elon was once again chastised for smoking pot on the Joe Rogan podcast. This time by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. As NASA starts launching new moon based initiatives it will be interesting to see if people like Mr. Bridenstine emerge as villains in Musk World as behind the scenes politics may require NASA strongly leaning toward established partners like Boeing and Lockheed Martin's ULA instead of SpaceX.  I wouldn't bet against Elon and SpaceX though. Their more nimble approach has already allowed SpaceX to become the world's most prolific launcher of rockets and they also have the backing of Wall Street and Google. Remember the government also invested heavily in GM and the Chevy Volt - how did that work out?

And now your very cool moment of the week - double sonic booms as the SpaceX Falcon performs its vertical landing.