š Elon Muskās weekend announcement will disappoint Model S Plaid fans
Musk Reads #249
Tesla pushes back a major release; SpaceX keeps building; Musk is in the market for a graffiti artist. Itās the free edition of Musk Reads #249 ā subscribe now to receive two more editions later this week!Ā
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Musk quote of the week
āWords cannot describe the limbic resonance.ā ā Elon Musk tweeted poetically after he announced the Tesla Model S Plaid release was pushed to June 10.
With its purportedly revolutionary speed, Tesla Model S Plaid could be a huge win for Tesla and EV advocates. Read more.
Tesla: The Tesla Model S Plaid needs some tweaksĀ Ā
The Tesla Model S Plaid release, originally scheduled for June 3, has been nudged back a week. But Muskās May 29 tweet announcing the news makes the wait seem worth it.Ā
āThis car feels like a spaceship,ā he said, touting its ālimbic resonance,ā a phrase typically used in the context of love and empathy. So like a space-age Herbie: Fully Loaded, maybe.
According to the Tesla website, the Model S Plaid will reach a top speed of 200 mph and will be able to go from 0 to 60 mph in 1.99 seconds, 1.11 seconds quicker than the Model S Long Range. The next generation Tesla Roadster, scheduled for a 2022 release, will be even faster than that with, according to Musk, a boost from the āSpace X rocket thruster option package,ā a feature he has been teasing for the past three years.
It sounds like a joke, but the same could be said of Muskās Roadster in space, which has been making its lonely orbit since 2018. Plus, people have been dreaming up rocket-powered cars since the early 20th century, sometimes with astounding results. The 1979 Budweiser Rocket, for example, used a hybrid-fuel rocket engine and sidewinder missile to help it allegedly drive over 700 mph and break the sound barrier.Ā
As one might expect, these rocket cars arenāt even kind of street legal, so the hypothetical rocket thruster-equipped Roadster would have a slew of regulatory hurdles to clear before hitting the market.Ā
SpaceX: Constructing on the ocean and every two days
On May 30, Musk tweeted that construction of SpaceXās first ocean spaceport is underway, aiming for 2022 usability.Ā The spaceport, named Deimos, after one of Marsā moons, will be one of two converted oil rigs purchased by SpaceX earlier this year; the other is named Phobos, another Mars moon.
Unlike the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship currently in use, which has to be remotely guided into the ocean and only provides a landing area, these spaceports would provide launch and landing for Starship rockets. They also seem to be part of Muskās (to put it lightly) ambitious plan to make Starship rockets a global public transit system.Ā
An animated SpaceX video from 2017 demonstrates what that might look like, with spaceports located outside of major cities like Beijing, London, and Dubai supporting 30-minute civilian rocket trips.Ā
Deimos is an exciting small step toward SpaceXās big plans, and, really, just one of many. If SpaceX gets its way, NASA will make Starship rockets the next to land on the Moon. These reusable rockets will be powered by SpaceX Raptor engines and, according to Musk on May 29, SpaceX has been producing around one of these engines every 48 hours.Ā
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In other Musk newsā¦
Elon Musk is asking artists to submit some āawesome graffitiā designs to decorate Teslaās new Berlin factory
Teslas made in Texas will likely have to leave the state before Texans can buy them.
In other Musk-related newsā¦
T-minus the internet
A ranked list of everything Musk-related and online, handpicked weekly with bionic precision.Ā Ā
10. Various companies could control space before the rest of us can even get there. Read more.
9. But it wonāt be the new Wild West; some lawyers are beginning to consider the limits of ambiguous space law. Read more.
8. SpaceX continues to send Starlink satellites heavenward; one fan even made a site that helps you watch them fly. Learn more.
7. Musk predicted Neuralink brain chips, which donāt exist yet, would universalize language by 2025. The available language technology we have makes that timeline look even less realistic. It's a nice idea, though.
6. YouTuber Rich Rebuilds has been working on his V8-fueled, franken Tesla since late 2020. Most recently, he added a fuel cell. Watch now.
5. I found a web game where you āmineā Dogecoin to fund your Shiba Inu avatarās trip to the Moon. Sound familiar? Art imitates life.
4. Japan is planning on sending a ball-shaped transforming robot to the Moon in 2022. Transformers are real!
3. Earth Robots, in the meantime, are working on their smiles. Read more.
2. NASA released GIFs and still images of shimmering clouds on Mars, taken by its Curiosity rover. Read more.
1. And a piece of Musk history: In 2010,Elon Muskās first wife, Justine Musk, gave Marie Claire readers an intimate understanding of her relationship to Elon Musk, his rise to infamy, and their marriageās downfall. Embrace the muck.
The ultra-fine print
This has been Musk Reads #249, the weekly rundown of essential reading about futurist and entrepreneur Elon Musk. Iām Ashley Bardhan, assistant to Musk Reads. Iāll be taking over the Monday newsletter for the summer.Ā
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Mike, Tim Neslon makes a good point. Maybe there a site where we can read in chronological order, the movment of the Starlink deployment (OPERATIONAL ORBIT) and who is now seeing some positive impact for receiving the signal? Or there should be.
Also noted that we have paid the $99 for the opportunity to Beta Test..but I have no clue. 60 sats are going up everal times a month and yet there is no information as to how those are coming ON LINE.
I often think about the conversation I get to have with my current provider's customer service representative when I cut them off from my pocket book. The TV Sat service as well.
Maybe an UP-TO-Date website with some information of the deployment status and of course the date and time of this new nformation to know it is not several weeks or several months old as i , could go a long way
If it already exists...where?
Such as Latitudes "Now being Served" I know the first inkling STARLINK is Overhead and soon to go active for this area..my remaining $400 is off in minutes after I receive that notice
Thank you
Tim Doreck
Prunedale, Ca
Lat 36. Lon 121.
When will I receive my star link gear?