R&D Mag's Innovator of the Year

[docm]

Elon Musk of SpaceX, Tesla etc.<br /><br />Link...... <br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Rocket Man<br /><br />From the Internet to manned spacecraft to electric cars to solar cells to education, Elon Musk is on a mission to develop innovative solutions to many of mankind’s toughest challenges.<br /><br />By any measure, Elon Musk is a true innovator. He made his fortune on developing innovative Internet-based tools. Now he hopes to expand that fortune by building cost-effective, reliable manned spacecraft. But his story doesn’t stop there at all—he’s also the chairman and the primary investor in the development of cost-effective electric cars and California’s largest installer of innovative solar cell systems. But Musk isn’t interested in building a fortune. He’s interested in solving problems and solving them with a cost structure such that everyman can use them.<br /><br />For these and the reasons noted below, Elon Musk has been selected by the editors of R&D Magazine as our 2007 R&D Innovator of the Year (IOY).<br /><br />Musk is the CEO and CTO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), El Segundo, Calif., a company he founded in 2002 to develop rockets and spacecraft for missions to earth orbit and beyond. In 2006, SpaceX won the NASA competition to design, build, and demonstrate operation of a commercial replacement for the Space Shuttle, which is scheduled to be retired in just a little more than three years, in 2010. The NASA-designed replacement for the Shuttle, the Orion spacecraft, is not scheduled to be available until 2015 at the earliest, leaving a five-year gap in heavy-launch availability. This is where the SpaceX proposal is expected to step up—with its Falcon 9 Heavy, launch vehicle, its 30-ton payload to orbit capabi</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[mccorvic]

Musk is a really awesome guy. Glad to see he is getting more and more recognition as time goes on. What's really unfortunate is that the general public STILL really doesn't know who this guy is, but they should because he is really changing the future everyday.<br /><br />Am I a fanboy? Maybe :/

 

[dragon04]

What.... Ron Popeil didn't take top honors?<br /><br />I agree that it's unfortunate. I think part of the reason for this is that Science in general isn't popularized. I find it extra disappointing that we have so many 24 hour cable news networks, and not one of them will spend a lousy 30 minutes a day on space news.<br /><br />Ask one of the die hard Survivor viewers who Elon Musk is, and they'll likely tell you that he was one of the guys kicked off the Island in Season 3, or maybe he got knocked off American Idol.<br /><br />The other thing to consider though, is that he's basically a Corporate Executive. If you named Exxon/Mobil's CEO and asked me who he was, I couldn't tell you. <br /><br />The media in general seems to be indifferent to private space enterprise. That kind of mystifies me though, because Bigelow, Space-X, SeaLaunch, VirginGalactic, etc are certainly potential future advertisers.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[docm]

No, the companies/services that will use them are future advertisers. With the exception of Virgin Galactic they're the freight trains & construction companies, and when was the last time you saw an ad for a railway or office building contractor? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>