Tag Archives: Elon Musk

The China Syndrome

26 Saturday Mar 2016

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  • Mars Date/Time:  Year 001, Sur Two, Thursday, Sol 22 (001.2.22)  01:25 NST
  • Earth Date/Time:  Saturday, 26 March 2016  2:00 PM PDT 
  • Distance traveled:  105,443,208 kilometers   Time Delay:  3 mins 54 secs
  • Distance to Mars Rendezvous:  286,966,544 kilometers

François was a very distinguished looking man. He sat in a small restaurant called Casa Sansa in Perpignan, France. It was ten at night and he was eating alone. 

The attractive young woman walked in and sat down across from him. “How was your flight?,” he asked. “It was fine,” she answered, “I don’t like flying during the day.” François asked, “Would you like something to eat. The food is good.” “No, thank you,” she replied, “Claude says you know what is going on in China.”

François noticed that two men and a woman had come inside and took a table near the door. He looked at her and said, “Do you know them?” She glanced over her shoulder at the trio, and looked back at François, “Sorry, they don’t let me go anywhere without my protection. I’m trying to become accustomed to them. I can have them wait outside.” He smiled and said, “No, that won’t be necessary. As long as you know them.”

François continued, “You want to know about Mr. Musk and the Chinese.” Megan said, “Yes. Can you help us.” He signaled to the waiter, who came over. “S’il vous plait apporter du vin pour la dame et lui apporter un apéritif. Surprenez-nous.” As the waiter left, François looked back at Megan and said, “It would be rude for to not have something. If you don’t like what he brings, we will order something else.”

François took another bite and then a drink of wine, then spoke, “There are two things you should know. First, the Chinese have no love for Elon Musk. They have seen through his gift of talk and see him as….what you might call…ah, used car salesman. They’re cautious of his desire to build a car factory in China, and they definitely are not interested in getting into bed with him in a space race with ESEP. They like being on the team that is already going to Mars.”

The waiter came back with an appetizer and a glass for Megan, which he filled with wine. François beckoned Megan to eat as he took another bite. He then continued, “Do you know the saying about rats and a sinking ship?” Megan nodded yes as she took a bite of the appetizer. She suddenly realized she was hungry.

He said, “There is something that happens before the rats leave the sinking ship. The captain chases all the cats off. Once the cats are gone, the rats take over and the ship is eaten full of holes and then it sinks. Mr. Musk has gotten where he is because he had great people around him. A while back, he decided that he no longer needed his cats. In particular, his personal assistant, who was a buffer between Mr. Musk’s despicable personality and everyone else. Others left, and eventually he was left with just the rats.

At the end of this month, Mr. Musk is starting to take orders on his cheaper version of his unprofitable Tesla car. You don’t build a car for $70,000 and not make a profit, and then make a car for half the price without sacrificing half of the quality. It is very likely that his new car will be a failure once people start driving it.” He took another bite, and a sip of wine.

François signaled the waiter for more wine, and then continued, “His employees hate him, his car venture is about to crash, his space program is laughable, and now he’s divorcing his second wife, for a second time. The word on Wall Street is that his Tesla stock is about to take a dive, and that makes perfect sense. He is a desperate man who has fallen off a cliff and is screaming as he is racing toward the ground. You have nothing to worry about from Elon Musk. If anyone should be worried it is Mr. Bolden of NASA. He’s attached himself to a star that is about to implode. Would you like some more wine?”

Elon’s Female Dog

23 Wednesday Mar 2016

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  • Mars Date/Time:  Year 001, Sur Two, Monday, Sol 19 (001.2.19)  03:21 NST
  • Earth Date/Time:  Wednesday, 23 March 2016  2:00 PM PDT  
  • Distance traveled:  94,628,520 kilometers   Time Delay:  3 mins 48 secs
  • Distance to Mars Rendezvous:  297,781,232 kilometers

It was a pleasant day in southern California. Two men sitting on the deck at the Cheesecake Factory at Marina Del Rey did not seem out-of-place. It was two o’clock and they were enjoying the Sun, the ocean breeze, and a late lunch. One man was wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap and sunglasses. The other was overweight, and looked like a tourist.

“I hope you understand that we have to move fast,” said the man in the baseball cap. The other man answered in a heavy Russian accent, “Mr. Musk, I assure you, we understand the urgency of the situation; however, we cannot pay for your space program on our own. If you can bring our friends in, then I think we can do business.”

Musk leaned forward and said, “The United States is no problem. After this election, ESEP will be as hated by Republicans as much as the Mexicans, and as for China, I’m working on them. They’ll come around.”

The overweight man replied, “But Mr. Musk, it does not seem that the Republicans will win this election. I don’t see how this helps us.” Musk answered, “Liberals hate space programs. If they win their will be no money for ESEP, but we can leverage the Republicans to demand funding for our program as a matter of national honor. Americans have to be one of the elite, and if we offer a Mars program that is exclusively run by the three super powers, they will not want to be left out. In fact, they will leap to be in a space race with ESEP.”

“Well, Mr. Musk,” said the big man, “you are very good at talking. Rest assured that if you bring the US and China to the table, we will be there, too.” Musk smiled and sat back. He had two partners in the bag. Now he needed China.

“Excuse me,” Musk said as he stood up, “I have two launches next month and I need to get back. Thank you again, for your support, and please let Mr. Putin know that he is welcome anytime to come to Texas and see our facility.” Musk walked through the restaurant and headed to the front door. As his driver opened the door he pulled out his phone and called Charles Bolden, Administrator of NASA. Musk started the conversation, “Russia’s on board if I can bring in China. What can I offer them?”

Musk’s call lasted almost all the way to his office, with several outbursts on his part, reminding Bolden that NASA was rapidly becoming irrelevant. In the end, Musk had what he wanted. China would build, Russia would launch, and the NASA would let SpaceX run the show. If Bolden didn’t feel like Elon’s administrative assistant before, he did now.

Press Conference

21 Monday Mar 2016

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  • Mars Date/Time:  Year 001, Sur Two, Saturday, Sol 17 (001.2.17)  04:38 NST
  • Earth Date/Time:  Monday, 21 March 2016  2:00 PM PDT
  • Distance traveled:  87,418,728 kilometers   Time Delay:  3 mins 36 secs
  • Distance to Mars Rendezvous:  304,991,024 kilometers

Megan stood behind a plexiglass lectern and faced the sixty reporters that had been given credentials for the press conference. She was not accustomed to making formal press statements, but she was always close by her former boss when he did, and she had advised him on what questions might be asked, and how to answer them.

However, being the person with the camera lens focused on them, was different from supporting the person with the camera lens focused on them. The room had been noisy when she walked in, but now there it was silent. She began,

“As you know from our first news conference last night, we lost signal with the ESS Sagan at 5:48 AM Nippon Standard Time, 1:48 PM Pacific Daylight Time or 5:04 AM Noctis Standard Time. The Sagan had traveled approximately 83.8 million kilometers.

As we said last night, we have visual confirmation that the ship is intact; however, we cannot see enough detail on the ship to determine any physical damage to the ship.

Our engineers have gone over the possible scenarios that would cause a loss of signal with the ship, and the two most likely scenarios are an explosion on the ship, or a strike by a small meteoroid. Almost any explosion would cause the ship to spin and/or deviate from course, which has not happened.

We believe that a meteoroid strike is to most likely explanation for the loss of signal. Specifically, a meteoroid strike in the ship’s Communications or Comm section would be able to disable all the communication temporarily; however, the Sagan has two Comm Sections. The one in use was the section that was originally part of the ESS Queen Elizabeth II. The Sagan originally had a smaller Comm system that was used prior to the merge of the two ships. It is located in front of the QE II’s original Comm section. It is possible that both were damaged, or for some reason, the crew is not able to access either Comm sections. 

Two hours ago we sent a chase ship after the Sagan. This ship, designated Charlie One, consists of a Comm Section, an ICP drive section, a fuel storage section, one Hab section with four, seven-section Quills and eight cargo Quills each with four sections. It is coming up to velocity, which will be just over 300,000 kilometers per hour, or twice the speed of the Sagan.

However, because Earth has been moving in the same relative direction as the Sagan, the distance between them is only 43 million kilometers. It will take nine days for Charlie One to overtake the Sagan, which will be sometime on March 30th or Sol 25 of Sur Two. It has a crew of 18 on board. 

I’ll now take questions.”

“What possible reasons might prevent the crew from reaching the Communication sections?”

“To your question, if this was a meteoroid strike, the section would be sealed to prevent the loss of atmosphere. They would have to repair the damage to the section to repressurize it, before they could enter it and begin work of repairing or switching to the other Comm Section. There is also the possibility that the damage is to both sections. We should face the possibility that we may not have contact with them until Charlie One reaches them.”

“Elon Musk has said that ESEP has moved too fast and that this situation is a direct result of ESEP ignoring the safety concerns of several engineers and the former Director of Security, who committed suicide because of his despondency over the situation.”

“First, Elon Musk has no capability of getting out of low Earth orbit, let alone to catch up with our ship, so he cannot know the cause of this situation. Second, the people he is referring to were all involved in the criminal takeover of ESEP in attempt to create a dictatorial-style management over our space program. They used the tragedy of the loss of our Director and several others to kidnap and lock out the people who were the decision-making authority and they illegally took command of the Mars mission and attempted to end it. The Director of Security was the leader of this group and his suicide occurred after he was arrested for multiple felonies associated with his actions.”

The room erupted in reporters asking questions, but Megan’s focus was on one person. The Mission Director had walked into the room and was now coming up to whisper something to her. She listened and then held up her hand to silence the unruly behavior of the journalists. She turned back to the lectern and said,

“We have contact with Director Wade. The crew is safe. We will have another press conference later today after we have had a chance to talk with her.”

Megan then left the room as the journalists erupted into an even louder outburst of questions, none of which were intelligible. None of that mattered. Everyone was alive. 

LOS

20 Sunday Mar 2016

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  • Mars Date/Time:  Year 001, Sur Two, Friday, Sol 16 (001.2.16)  05:16 NST
  • Earth Date/Time:  Sunday, 20 March 2016  2:00 PM PDT
  • Distance traveled:  83,813,832 kilometers   Time Delay:  3 mins 36 secs
  • Distance to Mars Rendezvous:  308,595,920 kilometers

Megan was not happy. She wanted to be up by 3:00 AM NST, so that she could put together her morning briefing for the Director and her team. But because she spent a late night working on the Musk issue, her personal assistant thought she should sleep in an hour. She had a few critical words with her assistant and then stormed out to the SUV waiting for her.

Upon arrival at the ESEP Center in Nippon she was met by her administrative assistant,
“We’ve lost signal with the Sagan,” was all she said. Megan walked past her office and into the Comm Center. Megan said in a loud voice, “Give me the rundown.”

The on duty Mission Director came over to her and said, “Twelve minutes ago we lost signal with the Sagan. There was no forewarning, and there has been no contact since. Our last data indicates a loss of pressure in the core section and the hatches were sent a command by the computer to seal all sections. We only have about two seconds of data following the first indication of trouble. Whatever happened, it took out the communications, including the redundant systems. We’re trying to figure out how that can happen, short of a catastrophic event on the ship.”

Megan had been looking the Mission Director in the eye as he explained the situation. She knew what he feared. Loss of signal, meant loss of ship. She looked around the room and then looked back at the Director and said, “Call it.” The Director nodded and walked back to his workstation. He opened a flap and pushed the button under it. Instantly every screen read,

CHARLIE ECHO PAPA….CHARLIE ECHO PAPA….CHARLIE ECHO PAPA…

The code stood for Crisis Event Protocols and put into place a set of procedures that canceled normal duties. The protocols required that the Council members be informed of the crisis and confirm that the event is a legitimate crisis and gives the Director certain authority to act on behalf of ESEP. There was a contingency that if the Director was not able to perform his or her duties, that the Council would name an Interim Director.

Megan turned and left the Comm Center to go back to her office. At her workstation she contacted Claude Dubois on Earth Prime. Claude was one of the Council members, but she needed to put some tasks into motion before she talked with the rest of the Council. Claude responded, “Megan, we’ve lost signal also.” As Earth’s orbiting spaceport, they maintained contact with every ship and the Commodore knew the nature of the crisis before Megan contacted him.

Megan said, “Do you have a visual on them?” Claude replied, “We still have the ship, but they are over 80 million kilometers away. We have no detail.” Megan said, “I’m calling a Council meeting in six minutes. Give us whatever you can.”

The next hour became a blur. ESEP sprang into action with predetermined teams following a set of protocols that had been devised and revised many times. Most important was a message sent to every ESEP employee. It said,

COMMAND ALERT!
CONFIDENTIAL – FOR ESEP PERSONNEL ONLY
At 5:04 AM NST, all contact was lost with the ESS Sagan. We have a visual on the ship and we know it is not a catastrophic failure; however, all efforts are to be made to identify the cause of the LOS and how to restore contact.

The Council has met and has confirmed the CEP. Crisis Event Protocols are now in place. In addition, Megan DeLuca shall be the Interim Director until we have regained contact with Director Wade and/or the crew of the ESS Sagan.

Earth Prime is directed to configure and launch a chase ship within twenty-four hours if we have not had contact. If your department is not directly involved in the event activities, you are directed to continue to maintain the current duty schedule.

More information will be provided as it becomes available.

The Smell of Musk

19 Saturday Mar 2016

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  • Mars Date/Time:  Year 001, Sur Two, Thursday, Sol 15 (001.2.15)  05:55 NST
  • Earth Date/Time:  Saturday, 19 March 2016  2:00 PM PDT
  • Distance traveled:  80,208,936 kilometers   Time Delay:  3 mins 30 secs
  • Distance to Mars Rendezvous:  312,200,816 kilometers

“What did you find out about Musk?,” Jenna asked. Ken replied, “We’ve confirmed he is talking to the Russians. He also contacted at least two of our suppliers and tried to work out an exclusive arrangement with them if they dropped our account. He’s actively working to sabotage us, but I think there is more to it than what we’ve found so far.”

Roman had just walked in to Jenna’s quarters for the morning briefing from Megan. He asked, “Who are we talking about?” Jenna said, “Elon Musk. We’re on his enemies list.” Roman replied, “That’s not good. He doesn’t like to play fair.” “What do you know?,” Jenna asked.

Roman replied, “I know he’s smart, and he likes taking advantage of the stupid. He played several states against each other when he was making noise about building his lithium battery plant, but the only place that had an active lithium mine in the North America was in Nevada. Nevada already had no income, corporate, or tax, but he managed to sucker them into over a billion dollars in tax breaks, even though it made no sense to build the factory anywhere in but Nevada. Then he contracted with a minor lithium mine in Mexico to put pressure on the Nevada lithium mine. He bullies people, and he seems to enjoy it.”

Ken added, “He is talking to the Russians about a partnership with SpaceX, and he’s trying to interfere with our suppliers.” Roman replied, “That sounds like Musk. If he follows his pattern, he’ll make a big show of it and try to manipulate people by scaring them.”

Naomi broke in to the conversation, “Director, I have Megan’s briefing ready.” Jenna said to everyone, “Let’s get started.”

Naomi started the recording and Megan’s image came up on the large monitor,

Good morning. The first item today is Elon Musk. We have learned that he is trying to create a private-based, joint space venture with Russia, China, and the United States. He is asking the United States and China to cut off funding to ESEP immediately, even though they have a five-year commitment. He has been working on this for some time, but has been aggressively pursuing his goal since your remarks on the Charlie Rose show. He also has contacted almost half of our suppliers and is offering them eight percent more per contract than what ESEP is offering. He also is posting bail and providing legal assistance to the ESEP engineers that were involved in the management coup. Apparently, he plans to tap them for their knowledge. He also is talking to Donald Trump. We don’t know what that is about, but I suspect ESEP is going to become the target of U.S. conservatives. We’re following the situation and our PR team is coming up with some ideas. I’ll be interested to see what your reaction is to this…

Jenna suddenly interrupted, “Naomi, pause that, please.” Naomi paused the playback, and Jenna continued, “I know what we need to do, but I want to hear everyone’s thoughts. Let’s deal with this now and get ESEP Earthside to start moving on it.

Ken said, “His whole game is to bluff people into doing something. We need to be careful at how we react.” Naomi added, “But we can’t ignore it. That also plays into his game.”

Jenna said, “We’re not going to play his game, we’re going to play ours.”

Morning Briefing

18 Friday Mar 2016

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  • Mars Date/Time:  Year 001, Sur Two, Wednesday, Sol 14 (001.2.14)  06:33 NST
  • Earth Date/Time:  Friday, 18 March 2016  2:00 PM PDT
  • Distance traveled:  76,604,040 kilometers   Time Delay:  3 mins 16 secs
  • Distance to Mars Rendezvous:  315,805,712 kilometers

The Command team had gathered in Jenna’s quarters for the morning briefing from Megan. Morning shift did not begin until 8:00 AM NST, but because Jenna was now the ESEP Director, they had to be ahead of the Earthside ESEP administrators, so the day now started at 6:00 AM for her team.

Megan was going over the status updates she had received,

“The target date for launch of the Mars Computer Complex is now Sol 51 of this month. All three segments will be launched on that day. Earth Prime’s Computer Complex will go up five days later. Claude told me yesterday that they will have the ship ready to leave orbit by Sol 58. It will arrive at Mars at Sol 4 of Sur Four, or July 7th.

Because they need to follow human stress protocols for the G-load of the computer systems, that ship will have a crew. Claude is working with the engineers on the configuration, but it looks like the ship will be about the size of the QE II. The name of the ship?…are you ready for this?…it is to be called Data…after the Star Trek android character. 

On board the Data should be most of the replacement and administrative personnel you’ll need. They won’t have much time to train.

As for my personal assistant staff, thank you. It’s going to take some time to get used to, and I still think this is a revenge thing on your part, Jenna, but I suppose it is necessary. I’ve never felt so safe or pampered.

Regarding the new Mars schedule, Earthside seems to be in agreement that everything on the accelerated plan can be done on time. The target date for the next mission is now Sol 2 of Sur Four or July 5th. We are now looking at an early or mid-August launch for the 4th mission, and an 5th mission in late October or early November.

This is pushing our launch facilities up to capacity with two to three launches per day. Chile is moving forward to building two more launch pads and we are about to break ground on our Nippon launch facility.

Quill manufacturing is ramping up. Our biggest problem has been the American-owned, investor-run, companies. We are fortunate that the former Director established a policy of minimizing our relationships with investor-run companies. Fortunately, our suppliers in France, Germany, Spain, Nippon, Great Britain, and Korea have stepped in to pick up the slack.

Earth Prime has been using the new procedures in assembling the ships and it is shaving months off the schedule. Claude is very happy.

Elon Musk is upset about your SpaceX remarks on Charlie Rose. Apparently, your point that his entire program is based on reinventing thirty-year-old space technology sent his stocks into free fall. I think he’d like to come up and give you a good lecture…if he had a craft that could get out of low Earth orbit.

NASA is not too happy with you either, but I suspect their employees know that your analysis of their program is spot on.

That’s all for now. I’ll talk to you later this morning, unless you have something more urgent. Have a great day!”

Ken looked at Jenna and said, “We need to talk about Musk.”