It's been a few months since Elon Musk shot his Tesla into space in his revolutionary Falcon Heavy 9 rocket. For most of us, the fact that a car is hurtling towards Mars is satisfying enough, but we haven't we really stopped and asked ourselves "why?" What would prompt Elon into spending millions of dollars in an attempt to blast his old car into space? Especially when it was something he himself believed would end in disaster.
Well, at first I thought of two possibilities. One was to prove to international clients that his new Falcon Heavy rocket was capable of sending objects as big as a car safely into orbit. And two, which I thought was more of the case, it was just another example of Elon's eccentric behavior to pull off something extremely outlandish. If you somehow think this is unlike a Elon, then let me just direct you to the $700 flamethrowers that he sells on his Boring Company website and see if you change your mind.
However, I realize now that Elon's motives may have been far more simplistic and clever that I had thought. My father, an assembly manager for SpaceX, recently met up with an old boss from BMW and they were talking about Elon's ambitions for future missions to Mars. His former boss, a German executive, displayed what I would categorize as a trademark lack of imagination displayed by most Germans and could not see the logic or relevance of trying to send anyone into space.
Furthermore, on the subject of Elon's coupe in space, his former boss found it as an even more lucrative waste of money. And when one first thinks of it, it kind of is. However, then I came to a realization. The main purpose behind sending a car up in space was far more than just proving the capability of his product or satisfying his own eccentric behavior; it was actually a brilliant marketing campaign. No matter, how much some people might see Elon's display of showmanship as ridiculous, blasting his car into space definitely put his infantile company on the map.
Whether you like it or not, you're still buzzing. I had come to realize that every downright crazy idea Elon comes up with, whether it'd be a car in space or selling flamethrowers online, nothing is necessarily about directly making a quick profit. In fact, after only a few days after the launch, the SpaceX hat I normally tote around campus began receiving praise and thumbs up, where as before it received next to nothing. Branding yourself is what it's all about to Elon.
So the next time Elon decides to do something seemingly idiotic, lets give him a little leverage. Not only has he succeeded in pulling them off, but he also gets the public interested in a project that would be more or less dismissed at first thought. Who knows, maybe 17 year olds wielding around flamethrowers and a car floating around in space will put a tunnel under Los Angeles and a man on Mars.
