“Driving Innovation in the Radical Times refers to the application of ‘Novel’ ideas and useful concepts to innovate technology, product, or solution for disrupting the world for the good of Human-kind.”
My question then is, why has innovation stalled or deferred to re-look at a future date? The answer is simply because every organization or individual are fearful about the challenging times the Novel Coronavirus has brought. For the first time, it has challenged the human-kind who have been harping on their superior brainpower.
However, even in such challenging times, there is one Innovator and a visionary who is busy innovating. Yes, you guessed it right, Elon Musk has disrupted the entire industry and challenged innovators across the globe on how he continues to put all his focus on merely innovating. The following innovations are sure to change the face of this earth once successfully implemented in the near future.
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Reusable Satellites:
In Historic First, Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule, the company’s privately funded spacecraft, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has successfully launched two NASA Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley into the International Space Station (ISS) marking the dawn of a new age in commercial space travel. The flight also ended a nine-year launch drought for Nasa. Ever since it retired the space shuttle in 2011, Nasa has relied on Russian spaceships launched from Kazakhstan to take US astronauts to and from the space station.
The launch comes 18 years after Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp with the ultimate goal of populating other planets. The astronauts’ voyage, known as Demo-2, is the final major test of SpaceX’s human spaceflight system before Nasa certifies it to fly working missions to the space station. For Elon Musk, the launch represents another milestone for the reusable rockets his company pioneered to make spaceflight less costly and more frequent. “If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like aeroplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred. A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space.
“Although SpaceX has not released precise figures, a spokesperson has said the cost to refurbish and reuse the stage-one rocket is “substantially less than half” the cost of building a new one. Ultimately SpaceX plans to cut the turnaround time to just 24 hours. The next evolution of its program, the Falcon Heavy, is a super-heavy lift vehicle using three Falcon 9s capable of lifting more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle – the Delta IV Heavy, made by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing – at one-third of the cost. SpaceX also is in talks with Space Tourism companies about bringing tourists to orbit. Each ship is designated to hold four NASA astronauts or seven tourists. So humanity’s presence in Space should increase in the years to come. Actor Tom Cruise could be among the first non-astronauts to ake once of those seats. SpaceX and NASA are reportedly in talks about filming an upcoming move in Space – ‘A Dawn of Space Tourism.’
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Million-Mile Batteries:
According to the recent announcement by Elon Musk, Electric car maker Tesla Inc plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in its Model 3 sedan in China later this year or early next that it expects will bring the cost of electric vehicles in line with gasoline models, and allow EV batteries to have second and third lives in the electric power grid. The new ‘million-mile’ battery at the centre of Tesla’s strategy was jointly developed with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL). It deployed technology developed by Tesla in collaboration with a team of academic battery experts recruited by Musk, three people familiar with the effort. Tesla is already the industry leader when it comes to squeezing range out of lithium-ion batteries in electric cars, and it is expected to reveal more about the new technology at an upcoming “Battery Day” in September 2020 for investors.
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SpaceX Internet from Space:
Starlink is a satellite constellation being constructed by SpaceX to provide satellite Internet access. The constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), working in combination with ground transceivers. SpaceX also plans to sell some of the satellites for the military, scientific, or exploratory purposes. The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington, houses the Starlink research, development, manufacturing, and on-orbit control operations. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in May 2018 to be about US$10 billion.
Product development began in 2015, with the first two prototype test-flight satellites launched in February 2018. SpaceX is also seeking permission from the International Telecommunication Union to launch additional 30,000 Starlink satellites. In total, SpaceX hopes to have approximately 42,000 satellites in orbit. The second set of test satellites and the first massive deployment of a piece of the constellation occurred in May 2019 when the first 60 operational satellites were launched. Three satellites from that launch experienced technical issues, and they will be left to fall back to Earth’s atmosphere where they will disintegrate as they fall to the surface. SpaceX wanted to demonstrate their control over the fleet and intentionally crashed them to test their de-orbiting process.
The goal of Starlink is to provide internet coverage across the globe, including in the rural areas where the option of laying a fibre network isn’t practical; and in urban areas will provide more options for the customers. SpaceX is performing tests to gauge the capabilities of Starlink. The developers have even streamed 4K videos and played online video games using Starlink to test for lag. At the same time, some experts worry that the constellation of satellites could contribute to the problem of Space debris which is a legitimate threat to satellites and humans in Space. There are more than 16,000 objects smaller than a grapefruit in orbit which are moving at ten times the speed of a bullet. If they collide with the ISS or hit an astronaut, the damage could be catastrophic. However, Starlink is making safety an absolute priority SpaceX claims they can avoid crashes using data from the US Air Force. They also have tested their de-orbiting processes in the case of any emergency. There is no set pricing system for the Starlink service yet. As of 2020, SpaceX is launching 60 satellites at a time, aiming to deploy 1,584 of the 260 kilograms (570 lb) spacecraft to provide near-global service by late 2021 or 2022.
To summarise, innovation hasn’t stopped, and disruptions are happening while the world is battling World War III Novel Coronavirus Pandemic. There is no stopping, and instead, it is a great learning opportunity for us humans to realign and refocus in the world ahead, which is the ‘New Normal.’
