Musk: Mogul or Mediator?

In our class discussion last week about Elon Musk and his Mars mission, we spoke not just about the feasibility of a mars colony, but mostly of Musk’s over-confident and stark personality. Of a man who now ranks number 1 (as of 5 pm yesterday) on Forbes’ current list of Billionaires and their net worth, Musk has a surpassing net worth of almost $252 billion dollars. Imagine the limitless possibilities one can do with that magnitude of money. And to call attention to those funds, I wanted to research the good that Musk is doing with his premier companies, SpaceX and Tesla. Within this search, I became fixated not just on the benefit of his various investments, but on the exact nature of his intentions as well. And one will find that the ideals of techno-optimism are nonetheless true in Elon Musk’s financial and political promises.

This past spring, I took an awesome trip to the east coast of Florida. During our time there, I was able to witness a SpaceX launch of 51 Starlink satellites at 12:40 am on March 19th. Not only do I remember this cause I was thoroughly exhausted and our flight left at 6:15 the same morning, but the launch continually was postponed and rescheduled throughout the entirety of the 18th leading up to the final launch in the middle of the night. It was almost like the Starlink satellites HAD to be launched as soon as possible. And this would make complete sense in the context of the product. According to the official “Order Starlink” webpage, Elon’s product promises “high-speed, low-latency broadband internet in remote and rural locations across the globe.” SpaceX makes this possible by the launch of individual satellites which connect to individual dishes on remote areas of land to provide excellent connectivity. It’s clearly a game changer for regions unable to connect with traditional underground cables, and for anyone who just wants better internet!

Within the context of our war-ridden world, Musk is also inserting himself into the middle of the scene to assert his dominance. In the eastern hemisphere, Starlink is allowing the people of Ukraine to use the internet without restriction from Russian forces. Specifically, the citizens of Ukraine have “received more than 10,000 of the [Starlink] devices since Russia invaded.” Even though the Ministry for Digital Transformation in Ukraine had made contact with SpaceX prior to the war to install the internet providers, Russian invasion made it possible for funding from the U.S. government to be quickly implemented and used for the launch of the satellites. In a similar fashion, Musk is also attempting to do the same for the people of Iran.

Just last week, Elon offered the people of Iran uncensored internet with his novel product. On everyone’s favorite social-media platform, Elon tweeted that “if anyone can get terminals into Iran, they will work.” And therein lies the problem. The Starlink satellites have to connect with a small dish network on the ground to effectively provide the internet. There is no work around to this issue thus far and sources agree that “ smuggling large quantities of Starlink equipment into Iran is not feasible.” Is Musk’s twitter claim an unrealistic hope that has no possibility of actually occurring? To one reporter, his beneveloment hopes are truly derailed by the reality of physics and the tight restrictions of the Iranian government. However, as Musk has done in the past with formally unimaginable and rocky start-up products, there might be hope for the success of Starlink internet in countries like Iran.

Call him an over-confident jerk or an optimistic investor, Musk has undeniably made an impact on American tech. While the world waits to see if the mogul will truly fix an international issue, Musk’s net worth will continue to climb with his superseding business tactics and investments. What do you think of Musk: Is he a mogul or a mediator?