Elon Musk, CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX may not be an Earthling.
He may be from another planet.
The serial entrepreneur has distinguished himself by his willingness to always make outlandish promises and display ambitions that a large number of people would find excessive and would qualify as illusions.
But one has to believe that Musk plays in a league of his own. One of the examples most symbolizing this attitude is the automobile industry. For a long time, the billionaire was almost alone against all to trumpet that the future of the automotive industry was electric vehicles. Competitors and experts scoffed.
But years later, everyone is forced to swallow their pride in seeing the gradual adoption of electric vehicles by consumers around the world. Musk is already far from it. He sees the car as a living room on four wheels thanks to technology.
Musk Wants to Go Back to His Home Planet
Since then, he has been working to make Tesla vehicles into technological objects. This vision explains a good part of the market capitalization, which is in another stratosphere compared to other car manufacturers. Tesla (TSLA) currently has a market value of $562 billion, while that of GM (GM) is $54 billion and that of Ford (F) is $53.3 billion.
It is this visionary side that Robert Lutz, a veteran of the automobile, made a point of saluting recently.
"It’s like Elon Musk has been beamed down from another planet to show us mortals how to run a company” Lutz, who is AutoNation CEO, told CNBC on Jan.27.
Lutz's comment came two days after Tesla announced record 2022 results that stunned markets and investors. Musk and Tesla have also shown unparalleled optimism for this year as a recession is anticipated by many economists.
Lutz's compliments were brought to the attention of Musk, who took the opportunity to play with this flattering comparison that makes him someone from another planet.
"And he’s building a giant rocket to get back to his home planet!” the billionaire commented.
Unsurprisingly, comments from Twitter users, which Musk has also owned since late October, seemed to appreciate his joke. They were of the opinion that the tech mogul could reasonably be from another planet.
"You are an alien," commented the account user who posted Lutz's compliments.
"Legal or illegal?" asked another user.
"You’re definitely extremely good at you do! Don’t let it get to your head though," added another Twitter user.
Starship
All joking aside, Musk has been saying for nearly seven years now that humans will be able to colonize the planet Mars soon.
In 2019, he presented his launcher project, which is halfway between a rocket and a space shuttle, with great fanfare. Starship must eventually allow to transport a hundred passengers on long interplanetary flights, in particular to the Moon and Mars, the billionaire said.
Musk and SpaceX are building the future of space exploration around Starship. The heavy launcher is described as "the most powerful rocket in history". The objective is to travel in space as one travels in the air.
The billionaire wants to send hundreds of humans to Mars to colonize the Red Planet.
"Humanity will reach Mars in your lifetime," the Techno King, as he's known at Tesla, promised last July.
"Moon brought us together in ‘69, Mars can do that in the future," he added.
He shared a video on Jan. 15 to continue to build excitement around his goal.
"And that’s how we will land on Mars," Musk wrote.
Starship refers to the space transport vehicle and the upper stage of the launcher. The main stage, that is to say the booster needed to launch the Starship is called "Super Heavy".
This future “all-in-one” and reusable transport system must, as soon as it is put into service, replace in a very short time, the entire current range of SpaceX launchers and freight and manned transport systems. That is, the Falcon Heavy and the Falcon 9, used for launching satellites, refueling the International Space Station (ISS) and rotating crews.
Starship will also be used for commercial missions to the Moon.
