Speaker 1: A gentleman who we can call Elon in everybody, at
least in this country, I know exactly who you're talking about.
But mister Elon Musk, he's the CEO, lead designer of SpaceX.
Everyone I think knows this. SpaceX is an amazing commercial company.
It's the first company to launch commercial rocket and to
low Earth orbit with their Falcon one launch. Then in
two thousand and eight they were one of the winners
of a contract to bring services to the International Space Station,
the first commercial company to berth with the International Space
Station bringing supplies. They're also the first commercial company to
return a sizable return vehicle with all the components still intact,
which is very important to us, back to the surface
of the Earth. And so it's an amazing company. Has
done a great job and continues to push the boundary
that you'll hear from Elon. But his interest really is
not so much in lower Earth orbit as it is
going beyond lower th orbit and making sure humanity will
continue to live by exploring beyond beyond Earth. Elon has
a varied history of things that he's been involved in.
This was this is one of the things that makes
it so exciting to have this conversation with him today.
He's not one dimensional space guy. He's involved in Tesla Motors,
which he is a co founder and CEO, and also
a major player in the design efforts and what they
choose to go build and how of course, he was
a co founder of PayPal and zip too. He's deeply
involved in a number of other industries as well. And
so it's my great honor to welcome Elon Muska to
the stage. Thanks for coming, appreciate it. Okay, well, these
are great chairs, you guys. Look at those chairs you're in.
Let's see. So Elon, you've you and I were gonna
have a little chat this morning. We said it was
gonna be a fireside chat. So minus the fireside I
guess we're ready again. I've, as you heard, I've encouraged
folks to ask a few questions along the way, but
I have a few, a few questions I thought to
get us started. So the first one, which is probably
on everybody's mind, is perhaps you want to discuss a
little bit about the recent loss of the dragon in
the Falcon nine here on Space x seven.
Speaker 2: Sure, well, I mean I think it's it's obviously it's
a huge load to to SpaceX and and or do
we take these missions incredibly seriously? The investigator, everyone that
can engage in the investigation of SpaceX is very very
focused on that. And I in this case, the the
the data does seem to be quite difficult to interpret,
Like whatever happened is is clearly not a sort of
simple straightforward UH thing. So we wanna spend as much
time as possible just reviewing the data, obviously going over
it with with NASA and with the FA and with
the number of other customers, and just sort of seeing
what to feedback everyone has based on their prior experience,
to see if we can get to what the uh
most likely root causes at look at both what we
think most likely happened and then anything that's a close call,
and try to uh address all of those things and
maximize the probably of success for future missions.
Speaker 1: Any hints where you think the problem.
Speaker 2: Lies, well, and I know that this this media and
the audience, so you have to be fair.
Speaker 1: I never really learned that, but that is a lesson
working on.
Speaker 2: So so it's yeah, I mean, I you know, the
I think I think I think we'll be able to
say something more definitive towards the end of the week.
At this point, really the only thing that's really clear
is that there was some kind of over pressure events
in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank, but the exact
cause and the sequence of events, there's there's still no.
Speaker 3: Clear theory that fits with all the data.
Speaker 2: So we have to determine if some of the data
is a measurement error of some kind or whether there
is actually a theory that matches the sort of what
what pear to be conflicting data points.
Speaker 1: Okay, very good. I'll just make a comment. The tweets
you put out regularly, particularly when events like this happen,
are really useful to everybody. We really do appreciate it.
You'd be amazed at how many folks quote what you
said and how glad they are that you just step
right out and at least give some sign about what's
going on and that you know we'll get through it.
Things are going well.
Speaker 2: So we appreciate that absolutely, and for sure, as soon
as we think we've got a clear line on what
would happened and we've sort of cross checked it with
as many experts as we can, and certainly appreciate that
the feedback from NASAU on this front. Ver very much
appreciate it. We'll certainly put a put out that story.
I'm only reticence about saying something quite yet is I
don't want to say something that subsequently turns out to
be a miss misunderstanding of the situation.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely understand that. So one of the questions
that I asked myself regularly is at what point does
all this government help hurt? So this ha been occurred,
and we have you have the NASA folks there from
from about three different programs that intend to use your services,
ISS being one of them. You have the FAA, that's uh,
that's involved, the RANGE folks are there without feeling like
you're giving your customers a hard time? How is that
interaction and what what should we consider doing differently so
that we in those areas where we can help, we
are helpful, and in those those areas where we're really
keeping you from getting your job done, we can modify ourselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Actually, I think the interaction with NASA has been great
this far. The biggest challenge there there are a lot
of inquiries coming in simultaneously.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: It's it's hard to sort of keep you know, respond
to respond to everyone right away.
Speaker 3: But but actually it seems to have gone fairly well.
Speaker 2: The biggest thing that's needed in the in the sort
of short term is the ability to sort of gather
all the data create a very precise timeline so that
you know, by by the melosecond we know what each
sensor was reading, and we can correlate that with the
ground video and actually, like one of the biggest challenges
is matching the things to the exact time, you know,
because when you're talking about you know, a matter of meloseconds,
you know, being able to say what is the groundtrack
video compared to the data as received by the you know,
by by the ground station from the rocket, and then
taking into account for exactly the actual time taking to
generate a packet of information. When when was that sensor read,
when was it encoded into a packet, and when was
that packet sent to the ground when when you're doing
in in molliseconds, that all that stuff actually makes quite
a big difference. So that's the biggest sort of effort
we've been engaged in thus far, is just putting together
a super detailed timeline and then just making sure that
we have this sequence of events down.
Speaker 3: As precisely as possible. That's what we're working on.
Speaker 2: And but but actually, certainly with the interaction we've had
with with Nason with us has actually been quite good
thus far, and we've explained that this is what we're doing,
and then we very much welcome any feedback or input
or a view of the data that would lead us
to a better understanding of the circumstances.
Speaker 1: I thought we had a very productive discussion back when
we had the engine one anomaly, and so I found
it be very useful. But that's a perspective from NASA perspective,
so it's always interesting to know your perspective of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems to be quite quite good actually right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're building the last couple of launches you've
had landing legs, and you've been working on landing the
first stage back eventually to shore, and you talk a
little bit about that and which your vision is for
that and for a SpaceX in general as you go forward.
Speaker 2: Sure, well, the overwatching goal of SpaceX is to try
to advance the state of space transport, advanced space transport
technology to the point where well it get as far
along the path as we can to where space travel
is hopefully commonplace at some point in the future, and
where we can send large numbers of people and cargo
to other planets. And you know, it's like that's the
sort of thing that needs to happen for humanity to
have a great future in space. So we want to
keep pushing that, and I think like to that future
is reusability.
Speaker 3: So that's why we've worked.
Speaker 2: Quite hard on reusability, and unfortunately we haven't succeeded yet.
And in fact, the last launch, ironically was we actually
had the best chance of landing of the vehicle on
the on the sort of drone ship that's keeping station
in the Atlantic. So we're actually quite sort of geared
up for hopefully this would be a really great launch,
and unfortunately ended up being the opposite. On my birthday
of all things. It was a real downer, you'll remember
it though, definitely low point. But but but I do
think in the in the future launches that that we've
got a decent chance of landing on the ship and
then bringing the boostage back to land, and then the
next challenge, of course, is trying to figure out how
to efficiently effectively reuse it. And it is designed for
easy reuse in theory, but we've got to see what
the stage looks looks like when it comes back in
one piece. We have been able to over the last
few years to do a number of vertical takeoff landing
tests of hardware that's essentially in the flight configuration, so
we know we can we can handle the terminal phase
if you know, if things go right, we can take
off land no problem. So it's just a question of
completing all the pieces and hopefully later this year won't
be able to do that, but that that's key. So
but of course that doesn't address upper stage reuse, but
it addresses boostage reuse, which is sort of seventy percent
to eight percent of the of the of the cost.
And but I think would be a great step towards
lowering the cost of space transport.
Speaker 1: So you know, if you look at your history, I
guess zip to PayPal these are largely software type efforts.
Now you've got Tesla electric cars, you're building a battery plant,
solar city. I guess you're involved in solar city. So
why space? It seems space to me and just what
I rate with you seems to be more of a
passion than the others or our businesses. But I can't
tell why space Why are you? Why do you think
it's important for us to be having access to lowerth orbit?
Speaker 2: Well, the I mean actually technically, I mean with with
the Tesla and Solar City, they're about helping to solve
the sustainable energy problem, and so we're trying to make
progress in that front on with those companies. With with SpaceX,
it's trying to help solve the space bearing problem. I
mean I I I think that a a future where
we're a space baring civilization and a and a multiplanet
species is very exciting, inspiring, awesome future. And in order
for that to happen, W we've we've got to dramatically
improve the.
Speaker 3: Cost of space flight.
Speaker 2: And uh, and that's that's why why space X exists,
is to try to try to lower the cost of spaceflight, uh,
which we've made some progress in doing, but still I
would call up improvements thus far evolutionary, not revolutionary, and
but with with a lot of continued work, and then
I think there's the potential for for order of magnitude
or greater improvements, reasability being key to all of that.
Of course, and uh yeah, and then hopefully if I
you know, if we want to see if if we
can keep improving the the cost of space flight and
eventually that trend is in the right direction, that could
be leading to a city on Mars, and certainly along
the way a lot of activity and low with orbit
and the Moon and you know, lots of other exciting things.
Speaker 1: So one of the things we're trying to do with
the International Space Station is try to figure out which
industries will prosper from the use of lower th orbit
to try to understand or help grow the economy essentially
in lower th orbit. And folks who are doing that
are all taking risks today. Our job is to try
to reduce the risk as much as we can near
term so that they can get the information they need
to really have a business case for the future. But
everyone's trying to calculate a risk. So is there an
e Lawn Musk philosophy of risk ursted benefit? And when
you I think is the right time to jump in?
I mean, what is your thought on on how to
approach new industries, innovative areas and when's the right time
to jump in or not? Or do you just mean
is there no crystal ball or is it a crystal
ball or Wiji board. I mean, how do you how
do you figure out what you should go after?
Speaker 2: Well, definitely the Wigi board of course, much more reliable
than the crystal ball.
Speaker 3: So the.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't really like risk for risk
sake or anything. It's and I do think that all
the things are are very risky with a low chance
of success. But if you want to try to come
up with an intovertive breakthrough, that's kind of that's going
to be how it is. Anything which is significantly innovative
is going to come with a significant risk of failure.
And but you know, if you've you've got to take
big chances in order for the potential for a big
positive outcome. And you know, just if and if if,
I mean if if the outcome is exciting enough, then
then taking a.
Speaker 3: Big risk is worthwhile. It's really our approach it.
Speaker 2: But w but then once executing down a path, I
actually do my absolute best to reduce uh risk, you know,
cause or or to improve the p another way of saying,
to improve the pobality of success, because uh, wh when
you try to do something that is very very risky,
uh y that you you you you have to spend
a lot of effort trying to reduce that risk as
you emblock down that path. I mean when wa when
it starts SpaceX, the I thought the odds of success
were very low. I thought we'd most likely fail, but
I thought, well, we should give it a try. Nonetheless,
And and then I'm not sure if you know what
what what preceded SpaceX because the why I got into
the space.
Speaker 1: I remember, you're trying to purchase a vehicle too, from
our Russian cor That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: Well, actually it was.
Speaker 2: The reason I got into space was to try to
increase NASA's budget. The and but so I'll tell you so.
The roundabout way I thought that might be accomplished was
I thought, well, if if NASA's budget was more, was larger,
than we could do more in space exploration. And I thought, well,
what particularly if we could get the public excited about
sending people to Mars.
Speaker 3: And I thought, well, if I could.
Speaker 2: Do a small greenhouse and send that to the surface
of Mars with seasons, nutrient jail, and you hydrate the
gael and landing you have a little miniature greenhouse and
then you'd have The public tends to get excited about
precedents and superlatives. So we like the you know, sort
of first life on Mars, the furthest lifes ever traveled,
and you get people sort of excited about, well, but
where we send people there, like the health of plants,
we should.
Speaker 3: Send people, you know.
Speaker 2: And and then I thought, well that could If that
could get the public really excited about sending Keill to Mars,
then that would translate into congressional support for a bigger
NASSA budget.
Speaker 3: That was the goal.
Speaker 2: And then I didn't have enough money to buy and
I thought that that outcome would have a har per
cent chance of no commercial success.
Speaker 3: So the harp cent chance of losing all the money.
Speaker 2: So so compared to that SpaceX, which I thought maybe
had a ten percent chances of success, that was an improvement.
Speaker 1: There. You go, well, that makes that makes good sense.
So are you still thinking about that? Do you remember
that conversation? This was the idea where you used Martian regulars.
You send these self contained habitats, if not habitats, and grow.
Speaker 3: Like commuter across or something like that.
Speaker 1: But just to prove the concept, yeah, just to get
it I mean, the real goal was to get the
public excited.
Speaker 2: You get some engineering data about what does it take
to maintain a little habitat on Mars type of thing,
but the main thing would be to get the public
excited and you know, get people to be you know,
the public to be in the paper of a pig
and ass a budget.
Speaker 3: It's the goal.
Speaker 1: And well, again, God bless you, it's a worthy goal.
I hope you never saw.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: Commercial crew. So you've been selected as one of the
providers for the commercial crew. Can you tell us a
little bit about where that's headed for you as a company,
and perhaps maybe how it's affected your company, if it has,
if it's changed the thing, and how you approach space.
Speaker 2: Things seem to be going fairly well on the commercial
crew front, I mean the I mean overall. I mean,
I mean that there are small disagreements here and there,
but overall, I like, I think we very much agree
with the way it's being done. And yeah, I think
it's it's it's pretty pretty good. I mean, there are
a few things where the like it seems like the
amount of of sort of massive volume reserved for poop
is too high. Like sorry, but that's you know, there's
like little things like that, We're like, well, are they
really going to do that much group? But it's it's
quite it's quite large volume, but really it's so but
I could really they're pretty small disagreements. So I think
that it seems to be pretty pretty sensible. And and
then we did the orange board test earlier this year,
which at the Cave, which actually went pretty well. And yeah,
so things that are going along getting pretty exciting. And yeah,
I think there's also some potential use for dragging too
as a science delivery platform, you know, going to sort
of delivering payloads to.
Speaker 3: Mars or other places.
Speaker 2: We're in discussion with other parts of NASSA about some
of those ideas because the propulsive landing, you know, it
could really lower the cost of getting science instruments to
various places in the Solar System.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of exciting.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna come back to that in just a second.
But commercial the crew vehicle versus the Dragon cargo vehicle,
clearly there are some significant differences. Fairly innovative approach, I
think to aboart testing, which traditionally you've seen the jess
and rocket on top that that's a pullar versus the
pusher technique where you utilize fuel that you otherwise would
use for the right on orbit, but of course you're
not going there, so very innovative approach. Are there other
areas where you feel like you're from an innovation standpoint,
you're making some significant strides with the crew vehicle?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the the the big items for well,
the the biggest item really for Dragon two is the
ability to do a propulsive landing. And it's basically h
having heavy thrusters on board. So those same heavy thrusters
can then do the abort but retain the the engines.
So instead of in a normal sort of crude mission
like sake to take the Sowyers for example, that have
a uh a tractor motor on the nose of the
vehicle that would have to be or basically a rocketential
on the nose that would have to be discarded on
every flight, which is a potential reliability issue. And it
and then you have obviously unable to reuse the the
the the abort system, and yeah, and it adds it
adds a bunch of bunch of mass. But but then
in addition, those same thrusters can be used for propulsive landing,
so you can achieve a precise propulsive landing which on
on land or water, which is I think a significant improvement.
And I mean it's sort of also it's sort of
like really, I think feels feels more like the future
to to have that that capability. And then as I
mentioned it for it can be extended to uh do
paler delivery to the Moon or Mars or other places.
Because of the the generalized capability of propulsive landing to
to land land almost anywhere very good.
Speaker 1: So, uh, let's go back to Dragon. At one point
you had a conversation talked a little bit bit. It's
something I think was Virtus Dragon Lab where you go
to lowerth orbit and do what I assumed was sort
of kind of research and then bring the vehicle back.
Are you still pursuing that or something like that. Is
this an area where you think that there is a potential.
Speaker 2: I think that there is some potential for to essentially
just take things to loath orbit and then bring them
bring them back, you know, after a few weeks or
something like that. It's it's not a huge area of
attention that's at space X, but I think we might
do a few missions like that, But yeah, I mean
Dragon is is very much sort of its primary optimize
optimization is as a transport vehicle to and from the
space station and uh and so things like Dragon Lab
and then the science delivery platform I think are interesting
extensions of that. And I think as as Dragon to
first flies and then gets into regular flight, I think
they'll probably will be some more applications that that people
can think of, particularly since with Dragon I the reusability
of the vehicle should be quite high.
Speaker 3: So if we have.
Speaker 2: Reusability of the Dragon spacecraft and reusability of the booster
and somebody is willing to sort of do a bunch
of flights with with the fully reused system, there's the
potential for much lower cost access to space. There is
a bit of a chicken and egg challenge because, like
the there's a certain amount of fixed costs that.
Speaker 3: Have to be.
Speaker 2: Carried no matter what, So the the module costs of
launch or the cost of each subsequent launch can drop
quite significantly. So long as the launch rate per year
is high, it stays up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course I'd add some other challenges to the system. Yeah,
trying to fly as often as you as you.
Speaker 3: Need to make that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's see. I don't want to bore everybody
with all my questions. And we talked about if folks
had any questions in the audience, let's see this. Oh,
well they're not bashful. That's good. So I don't know
if we're gonna need microphones. But but I'll start here.
Speaker 4: I would like to ask question.
Speaker 5: My question.
Speaker 6: Because you are like a kind of mentor and visionary,
and you give hope to a lot of people around
the globe because when they see you, they realize that
they can realize their dreams. But my question is different
when you are a dreamer, when you are when you
are a dreamer, when you are a visionary. Of course
you have your vision, but there are moments that sometimes
maybe you stop believing in this vision, especially in the
moments of some problems or failure. So could you tell me,
and could you tell also to thousands of people who
maybe will be motivated by your answer? What keeps you
fighting for your vision? What helps you to reach your gym?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I think I'm kind of constitutionally just
heared to just keep going.
Speaker 3: I don't know, it's a yeah, I mean, it just
I I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean it, certainly there are times when things don't
go well and then that's quite desperating, for sure, and
so then it's it's difficult to proceed with the same
level of enthusiasm. But but I do think, like I
do think the things that we're doing are you know,
pretty important to the future. And if we don't succeed,
then you know, there's well it's not clear what other
things would succeed. And if we don't succeed, then we
will be certainly pointed to as a reason why people
shouldn't even try for these things. So I think it's
important that we do whatever's necessary to keep going.
Speaker 3: Okay, And last question, last question.
Speaker 6: You know, so in two thousand and four, when you
are going to burn you men with your cousin, you
were thinking there is a sum and let's make energy
out of it. And I would like to ask you
why do you believe so in solar energy and clean
tech energies and also in sustainable energy. And the last
question I will not ask any more questions. What will
be the role of solar in the exploration of Mars.
Speaker 2: Sure, I think the solar energy is probably fairly significant
for Mars, and what's gonna be quite important is having
a very lightweight solar system that you know both well
eumetrically and graphometrically dance. So actually you were sort of
playing with the different concepts, like you know that like thing,
that party thing where you've inflated and it rolls out.
But the thing, like what one of the solar concepts
is is to have like a big role that you
just basically inflate and it rolls out with with with
like really thin solar panels on it. But but it's
it's gonna be pretty important because really you either got
to do that or nuclear, and you know nuclear has
has its challenges, but but for solar, it's it's pretty straightforward.
So I think I think solo is very important to
the future exploration Mars for sure.
Speaker 6: So thank you, and I wish you that your next
birthday is very successful.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's go, let's go. Okay, go ahead, BELTI.
Speaker 3: My name is Valentina.
Speaker 7: Nowref I'm from the United Rocket and Space Corparation, which
shortly will become a part of State Coparation Ross COSTMOS.
So I made this one question to the West because
I'd like to ask one question of you n Mask
what is his secret to become a successful businessman in
the space industry, and then coming back to Russia to
tell Russian businessman there.
Speaker 3: Is a way to become a taikoon and space industry.
Speaker 7: So seriously speaking, I'd like to ask you when you
started your business, was the government your partner? Was it
useful in what areas? And so there are always two
sides on is it going? Sure as they there were
times when you had to fight to bureaucracy, thank you sure?
Speaker 2: Well, well, I should say with respect to starting a
space business, it's definitely not the easiest environment to start
a business. And I think if most people were to
rank order what's the highest retinent investment, I mean, space
would not be very good. I mean it's I'm very
pro space, so it's like I you know, but it's
I mean, that's just true that like if you you know,
start a hedge fund, or if you're like many other industries,
then it's much easier to make money than the space industry.
This is not the easiest one to make money. And
it's yeah, car industry also quite difficult. So so the
ifact I mean when starting SpaceX, the the joke I
heard the jokes this joke so often it was ridiculous.
The joke was how do you make a small portion
in the space industry, and the punch line, of course
being started with a large one. Yeah, And I got
to a point I heard the joke so many times
that I would just get to the punchline and say like, well,
I wanted to figure out how to turn a large fortune,
just more one.
Speaker 3: That was my goal, And they're like, wow, how did
you know that?
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean I do think there's that there
is an opportunity in space, but but it is, it's
it's it's it's tough going. I think if but I
think if if, if SpaceX and other companies can can
lower the cost of transport to orbits and perhaps beyond,
then there's a lot of potential for entrepreneurship at the destination.
I mean you can think of it like the like
the Union Pacific Railway. You know, before there was the
Univercific railway, it was real hard to have commerce between
the West coast and the East coast by wagon or
a really long sailing journey. But once there was the transport,
then there were huge opportunities. And now look at sort
of you know, the California and Washington State and all
the industries that have been created in Silicon Valley and Hollywood.
But you've got to have that fundamental transport element otherwise
there's just it's really tricky. So we're trying to establish
that transport element, make it easier to get to lowerth
orbit and hopefully in the future, make it easier to
get to the Moon or Mars. And I'm an idea
of this long term vasion of like if there was
affordable transport to a place like Mars, I think the
entrepreneurial opportunities would be phenomenal, you know, because there'd be
people that would want to create everything from the first
pizza joint to the first iron ore factory. To be
like just an enormous amount of opportunity for people to
create things on Mars. And that'd be different things on Mars.
Some of the things on Mars will be different they
wouldn't even imagine on Earth. It would be very exciting.
So I think that's that's really key to making things
happen in space is you've got to have someplace. You've
gotta have some place to go in some place in
some way to get there.
Speaker 1: So so along those lines, did you read Andy Weare's
book The Marshal?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 1: What did you think I thought it was.
Speaker 2: It was pretty excellent, certainly one of the more most
realistic books on Mars that that I've read. I mean, like,
there were a few things, like the wind force on
Mars is not really that high. It's not going to
knock you over or anything. It's high obviously high velocity,
but low force. But overall I thought it was pretty cool.
And apparently it's been made into a movie and everything.
Speaker 1: So you don't have a cameo on that one too.
Speaker 3: I don't have a cameo on that one. I'm a
little worried that it might not make people too keen
on going to Mars like this, this looks really hard.
Speaker 2: I think we need to show about how Mas is
awesome and it's like the wild West and you got
the gunslingers and like the cool cowboys.
Speaker 3: And that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: All right, maybe you got to write a book too.
Let's either's a question over here.
Speaker 8: Hi there, my name is Anita Goel. I'm here at
out of Harvard and MIT. You run a company called
Nanobiosim so in your vision and dream to achieve low
cost space travel. How do you allocate your investments between
engineering and essentially driving down the cost of existing technology
versus investing in new breakthrough physics things like breakthrough propulsion
physics anti gravity. What's your vision in the bifurcation of
those two kinds of portfolios.
Speaker 2: Well, we don't spend a ton of time on new physics.
I mean the I I think with g with current physics,
this this huge potential. So rather than rely on a breakthrough,
which we you know, really it's difficult to envision what
that breakthrough would exactly be, or even I and exactly
be the w I I'm quite confident that with what
we know of current physics, sort of just going with
the kind of you know, where the standard model of
physics is today, that there are dramatic improvements possible.
Speaker 3: In space light.
Speaker 2: And I think with the you know, simply with with Falcon, iine,
I think we make improvements. And then with our next
generation rocket system, which is still you know, many years away,
that'll be a a deep cryo METHALOCKX system, I think
I think we can achieve full reusability and that that's
really that's a that's a huge potential for w you
know it, like maybe a two order of magnitude reduction
in the cost of spaceline. So as far as R
and D is concerned, like we we we we we
we hire great engineers as fast as we can find them.
So it's like the it's not that easy to find,
but I should say great issue is with the sort
of like the right mindset and everything.
Speaker 3: We we hire at the at.
Speaker 2: The maximum rate that we can find people that we
think would would really be an asset to the team.
Speaker 3: So there's no limitation on the Okay, we're here. Hi.
Speaker 4: My name is Zachary Maltson, a student from uh Babson College.
I just wanna say it's an honor to be here.
I read Ashley Nancy's biography about you. One thing that
really was intriguing to me was the super Draco engine
for the Dragon V two that was used to printed
out of three D technology to the vision using that
technology more in the future and when you first splace
exploration and do you think they'll how about affect the
costs in terms of getting to Mars everything like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So, as you lud to, we we we actually
print the super Draco engines so that they're printed out
of titanum in a canal, and and that actually allows
us to reduce the cost of those engines quite a bit,
in particular because we can print integral cooling channels. So
when you've got an hour glass chamber and you've got
cooling channels in the wall of the chamber, where the
whole wall consists of cooling channels, it's only quite difficult
to create that.
Speaker 3: Thrust chamber and nozzle.
Speaker 2: Because you've got to create an inner jacket outer jacket
kind of machine the inner jacket it's and then raise
the whole thing together. It's real pain, and you've got
a bunch of joints in there to make it all work.
So with printing, you can print something that you can't
make by any other means, so it actually ends up
being lighter and cheaper than if we're built it by
traditional methods. For our next generation engine, the which we
call the the Raptor, which which has mentioned is sort
of a it's it's a s it's a deep cryo methologus.
So what I'm mean by that is the the methane
and oxygen are cool to close to their freezing points,
so not not far from the freezing point as opposed
to close to their walling point, which is more which.
Speaker 3: Is normally the case.
Speaker 2: Uh the uh, you know w with that engine. Uh,
we're trying to print as much as possible. It's it's
a bit the The biggest limitation on free printing right
now is the the size envelope. So there's a limit
on how big we can print something. But we're able
to print the the turbopump components and much of the
injected not the whole thing, but many of the critical
parts we can print, so that actually helps us in
speeding up the development. So instead of waiting to pull
castings to be developed, which can take several months, and
then if the casting is wrong, you've got to iterate
in the casting, and each iteration we can take several months.
With printing, we can have.
Speaker 3: Those iterations can be reduced to a matter of weeks
or months, so that that actually helps with the speed
of developments as well. See are we here? Hi?
Speaker 9: I'm Ross Spungehock with a company called High Orbit. I
wondered if you'd give it could give us a little
bit of an update on what's going on with the
hyper loop and is there any overlap between the worker
doom of SpaceX and hyper loop technology.
Speaker 3: Yeah, SpaceX is not.
Speaker 2: Neither I nor SpaceX are doing anything to try to
commercialize the hype loop. There are two, I think at
least two, maybe more than two companies that have formed
that are completely independent of me or SpaceX that are
working towards commercializing the high loop technology or high bloop
idea or design. What what SpaceX is doing is We're
going to just create a little student competition for for
higher loop ideas, so kind of like around the way
that Formula SAE works, where students can come up with
a design and compete against each other to design the
best pod. So what what SpaceX will do is just
construct about a mile long uh low pressure tube near
nearly vacuum tube basically in which students can kind of
raise their pods. So it's just basically to support get
get students excited about engineering. That's the That's the only
involvement of SpaceX myself with the hyperlib at this point.
Speaker 10: Okay, ok here, Well, I'm Paula Kastagno, mus sociologist, and
I'm writing a book about the International Space Station. How
would you describe the scientific value of the International Space
Station and where would you draw the line between luxury
and need when it comes to space exploration.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean for space I mean I really spend
all of my time thinking about just how to get
to the space station.
Speaker 3: To be honest, I've I.
Speaker 2: I actually hadn't even really seen a proper movie of
the inside of the space station until I went to
see the preview of the new Imax thing that's coming out.
And it's amazing, Like when that Space Station Imax movie
comes out, people are gonna have blown away.
Speaker 3: It's awesome.
Speaker 2: I actually brought my whole team at SpaceX to go
see the preview of the of the IMAX movie. And
I mean, it's a It is a very unique laboratory
because this is the only thing that's in sort of microgravity,
that's above the Earth's atmosphere, and you can learn a
lot about basically human physiology, uh and do experiments that
you can't really do an any other lab, and you know,
and you can have to bring scientists up and they
can actually work in this incredibly unique lab.
Speaker 3: So I think that there's a lot to be gained there.
Speaker 2: And and I think it's just you can't sort of,
you know, ignore the coolness factor of it, Like that's
like people think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: So I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: And you know, the public want to have something going
on in space that that involves people, and yeah, and
it's it's just it's the coolest thing going on in space.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of valute that.
Speaker 1: You know, we've tried to to sells the wrong word.
It's the word we use, but sells really the wrong word.
We're trying to get people to recognize that there's a
platform in Lowers orbit and that this is important. What's
done in Lower's orbit has benefit to those of us
on Earth that will never actually go to space. But
in doing that, you're trying to get their interest level,
and part of their interest level is the cool factor
that you talked about. And I've always kind of struggled
with that being sort of black and white. I understand
the purpose in my head, that's why I joined NASA, right,
But over the years, this is one of the things
that I've started to recognize is important. So my question
to you is, did we I've heard a rumor that
for the suits for commercial crew that you wanted to
play and role in that and so is that true?
And and is there some reason behind the design of
the suit that you want to personally be involved in
other than cruise safety.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think we've actually spent a lot of effort on
the space suit design, on the both the functionality and
the aesthetics. But I think just just getting it's actually
really hard because if you just sort of optimize functionality,
it's one thing. If you optimize for aesthetics, it doesn't work,
Like you know, there's things that they don't work. So
the so it's like, okay, how do we make something
that looks cool, antworks and with with with a key
goal here of being being that you know, when people's
see that spaceically, they want them to think, yeah, I
want to wear that thing one day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that looks awesome. So that that's that's the reason
for it.
Speaker 1: Very good. Let's see, we'll do a couple more questions
and then let's let's can we get back in the
back here or do we have somebody else here already
with the microphone? All right, go ahead, thank you.
Speaker 5: I'm Alex Pearlman. I'm with Boston Magazine and I'm writing
for Advice today. I was hoping that you could give
us a little bit of an update on the most
recent news with the idea of putting satellites to provide
Internet to developing countries and unconnected people.
Speaker 3: Thanks. Sure.
Speaker 2: So we're still at the early stages of it's sort
of a big LEO constellation communication idea, and we're hopeful,
hopefully going to launch get a test satellite next year
and what I I think the long term potential of
it is pretty pretty great. But I don't want to
overplay or overstate, you know, things quite you know this,
you know, or any stage of the game really. But
the long term goal is to create a comprehensive global
communication system that's that provides high bandwidth, low latency connectivity
anywhere in the world and provides cross links through the
satellites so that you can have improved long distance Internet.
Speaker 3: It's one of the things that.
Speaker 2: Sort of your lize when you look at this is
that you can actually have a more direct path through
space and you can and photons move faster. I mean,
depending upon what fiber optic material they're running through, photons
actually move about forty to fifty percent faster in vacuum
than they do in fiber optic cables. And if you
look at the way that the fiber optic cables go,
they trace the outlines of the continents and they go
through many repeaters and routers and everything. So if you
want to say, communicate from a server in California to
one in South Africa, it's a very very long route
and sort of very roundabout path, and it's a high latency,
low photonic speed, and you could actually have that communication
be quite a bit faster if it's in space. So
I think there's there's the potential for for doing a
fair bit of long distance UH Internet activity as well
as providing.
Speaker 3: Bandwidth broadly.
Speaker 2: But it's also worth saying that a lot of companies
have UH tried this and kind of broken their pick
on it, and I think we want to be really
careful about how we delivered, about trying to make this
thing work and not not overextend ourselves. So we're being
s We're being, you know, fairly careful about it. But
I I do think this is something that should be
built and would be quite good to have. Well in
our case, the the communications technology would be substantially more
advanced in the past with say attemps like teledesic. The
the the electronics of the day were very low bandwidth,
I mean really analog or barely digital, and they weren't
very high bandwidth. So she said it really didn't compete
with stage with terrestrial phones. In the case of telogies,
they were looking to compete with or or to address
cellular needs. That the system we're talking about would not
attempt to compete with cellular needs. So for example, it
wouldn't compete directly with say iridium, which is which w
which can talk directly to a handset. Our system would
seem to would seek to talk to a small user
terminal that's about the size of a pizza box.
Speaker 3: Or much like you know current dishes that are the
satellite dishes.
Speaker 2: But it will be flat because we have faced ray
antenna that's tracking the satellites. But you could mount it
in a window or just anywhere outside as long as
you can see the sky, it would work.
Speaker 1: See back here, we'll take our last question back here.
Speaker 11: Hey Elon, thanks for coming out. I would like to
show you we brought a virtual reality camera here to
record for the first time. We have a small start
up in San Francisco called Space VR, and we believe
that virtual reality is the future of space exploration because
you can put people on the very cutting, the very
front of every every exploration mission. Is that something that
you've given much thought or have any opinions on?
Speaker 2: Well, I've I've gone, I've perceived the vircual reality demos
at uh Oculus and at Valve, and it's pretty impressive.
You can sort of imagine if that's extra late into
the future, it's really gonna super feel like you're there.
And I wonder if some people are never gonna wanna
take that all honestly, you know, it's like it's pretty
I mean it, it's pretty entrancing. But I I I
do think it'd be quite exciting to do that for
a space as well. Yeah do you do you have
a set up here?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Okay, it's right there. Wow, Okay, yeah cool? Okay,
w where are you based in? W Where? But where
you based? Okay?
Speaker 2: I think maybe today is going to be tricky. But
but but maybe if since you're based in California, I
could we could range something, you know, in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see elon we'll uh, we'll call it
a conference. I wanted to first thank you very much.
You've been very genius with your time and we you
know from the moment I called you, you were all in.
And uh, it's really this open conversation and your your
thoughts on on the on what's in front of us
that really excites us all in this room. So thank
you very much for your time. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thanks a.
Speaker 1: Thanks, thanks for listening.
Speaker 3: See you in the next episode.