Elon Musk Weekly Summary(2)

2017.9.16  (Chapter 6-7)

Part 1.Summary

About SpaceX :

After coups and long-time illness ,Musk decided to LA with Justine. There is the place for space , where he would restart his interest  and be surrounded by the world's top aeronautic thinkers. He indeed desired to do something more meaningful and lasting.

Resigning the Mars Society, Musk established his own organization --the Life to Mars Foundation.  His enthusiasm for the space also attracted many other talents to work with him. Although so many people were skeptical of his crazy idea , Mush never flinched.

Russia refused to sell a rocket , Musk decided to build a rocket by themselves. He was serious and has spent months studying behind it. Later Mueller helped him to fill out the spreadsheet around the performance and the other cost matrics, subsequently refined the idea. 

SpaceX was founded in June 2002,after Musk knew that eBay wanted to buy Paypal and he will get enough money .It will focus on a modernized reset ,which is more suitable for commercial . He made a very tight schedule for rocket making .

A crew of committed engineers worked harder and longer time in approaching the project . But failure happened one after another . It would be about four years after Muck's original target , and the company had been chewing through his Internet fortune at a worrying rate . In this case, Musk still believed his capabilities and went on .

About Tesla:

In 2000, Eberhard had started to accept global warming as a reality and began looking for alternatives to gas-guzzling cars. From Internet , he knew the all -electric cars so he went to AC Propulsion for co-operation . But they rejected his overtures. He decided to form his own company .After many testing ,he came to conclusion that they would focus on lighter-weight and high-end sports cars.

On July 1 ,2003 , Eberhard and Tarpenning founded Tesla. They rented a decrepit old office and started their business . Because of lack of money ,they went hunting for some venture capital funding ,but only two of them would like to invest . Later they went to LA and met Musk . Musk agreed to invest and became the largest shareholder of Tesla with an investment of $6.5 million.

Not long after their meeting , Musk asked Straubel to meet with the Tesla team. On January 27,2005, an entirely new kind of car had been built . Musk was very delighted to keep investing .After solving the battery issue and mocking up new looks, the team built EP1 and then EP2. At the display event ,unexpectedly many celebrities  wanted to pre-order their cars and Tesla got millions of dollars for producing . It was the first big success for Tesla.

By the middle of 2007, Tesla had grown to 260 employees and seemed to be pulling off the impossible .

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Part 2. Thoughts

 不断地失败才是成功之母。

从这2章里，我们知道了SpaceX 和Tesla的创立过程。困难也是超出了我之前所想象的。特别是SpaceX, 我觉得Musk在这里是花最多心思的，几乎是全程参与，当然这也是最有技术含量的活，所以整个过程中，Musk都在不断地招募补充最尖端的人才进来，淘汰不符合的人。精英团队经过反复的研究，潜在风险的测试，相应问题的解决，再测试，就是在这种严谨态度的情况下，火箭反射还是一而再，再而三的失败了。每次失败后，找出问题并最快时间解决。我们也看到了一次完美的发射背后是整个团队不懈努力，泪水和汗水的结果。成功真的不是随随便便就可以来的，需要付出，需要一次次沮丧后地再次振作！

我们常说: 失败是成功之母。其实我觉得不大对，应该是‘不断地失败才是成功之母”。我们的工作和学习为什么不能也力求完美呢？难道它们比火箭更难吗？难的是没有恒心和耐心！把Musk精神发扬到我们的学习和事业中，我们的未来也一定很美！

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Part 3. Words

1. top-of-the-line

原文：The third Roadster engineering prototype went to the same collision testing facility used by large automakers,giving Tesla access to top-of-the-line high-speed cameras and other imaging technology.

解释：adj.  the best one among the same products range ,（同类商品中）最好的，顶极的;最豪华的

例句：This is the top-of-the-line camera .

2. from thin air 

原文：It have produced the fastest, most beautiful electric car the world had ever seen almost from thin air.

解释：凭空变出来；

例句： The magician appeared  to materialize the rabbit from thin air.

魔术师看来似乎是凭空气变出那兔子的。

延伸：into thin air ,无影无踪，与from thin air 相反的意思

例句：They can not just vanish into thin air .他们不可能就神秘消失了。

3. grouse 

原文：Eberhard groused that these features were slowing the company down, and many of the engineers agreed.

解释：verb (informal )to complain about sth/sb. 通常搭配about ,grouse about something

例句: People always groused about the economy ,interest rates and house price.

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Part 4. Car-related Words

1.crash testing 冲撞测试

2.electronic sensors 电动传感器

3. rearview mirrors 后视镜

4. windshield 挡风玻璃

5.upholstery 车室内装饰品

6.two-seater 两座的

7.chassis 底盘

8.dashboard gauge 仪表盘

9. gear 档

10. reverse gear 倒档

11. change/shift gear 换档

12.clutch 离合器