Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Remote Control Race Cars on the Moon?

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Remote Control Race Cars on the Moon? · Elon Musk Podcast

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  know it. It's better.
• 2:01
  Today's episode will feature one of my favorite interviews from a
• 2:05
  few years ago. It's from a company called
• 2:08
  Moonmark and the purpose of this company is to send remote
• 2:12
  control cars and have a competition, a race on the lunar
• 2:16
  surface. Enjoy.
• 2:18
  Because we're we're here to share the information.
• 2:21
  So Moonmark is a competition between high school teams across
• 2:26
  the country and we are already getting a lot of interest from
• 2:31
  across the world and students grades nine through 12 are going
• 2:36
  to compete to become the final two teams that create built 2
• 2:42
  space worthy racers. They're not Rovers, they're
• 2:45
  racers and they will go up on the intuitive machines known as
• 2:49
  Sealander, which is going up October 11th of 2021.
• 2:56
  Very, very cool, yeah, Heikum said.
• 3:00
  In, He said. Oh, high schools, yeah.
• 3:02
  Is it only open to high school people or can people outside of
• 3:06
  high school older than high school, like college teams or
• 3:08
  something like that? Ander.
• 3:10
  So about the the actual teams that are going to build these
• 3:14
  racers are going to be high school students.
• 3:17
  We are reaching out to those, like I say, in grades nine
• 3:21
  through 12. However, the purpose is for
• 3:25
  them. They're to, you know, if you get
• 3:27
  to, if you get to build something instead of land on the
• 3:29
  moon and race on the moon, there's a little bit of, you
• 3:32
  know, skin you got to put in the game, right, or in the sport.
• 3:36
  And in this particular case, the tuition, so to speak, is that
• 3:40
  they have to reach out and they have to engage people across the
• 3:44
  globe and and what they're doing, how they're doing it and
• 3:49
  why they're doing it. And so there's a lot of
• 3:51
  opportunity for people of all ages to engage with the students
• 3:57
  as they go through this process. Now, Moon, what Moon Mark is
• 4:01
  going to do is to capture the content and the adventures of
• 4:05
  these young people and share it in across television, digital
• 4:11
  streaming. But you know, our purpose is
• 4:14
  really to share what is about to happen to humankind through the
• 4:18
  eyes of these students, meaning the accessibility of space, the
• 4:22
  commercialization of space. So we're really excited about
• 4:26
  this. And we also, right now I do want
• 4:28
  to mention we have a learner race car design challenge that's
• 4:33
  going on. We're working with intuitive
• 4:35
  machines. We worked with them to develop
• 4:39
  the space specifications of what these racers will need, so that
• 4:45
  when they land on the mode, they'll have the the, the right
• 4:48
  stuff, so to speak. And then there those that are
• 4:51
  competing in the the design challenge in the next few weeks
• 4:57
  actually through the end of June, they will be able to put
• 5:01
  their own mark on those races and we'll have a panel of judges
• 5:06
  that will judge the design, the space worthiness and we'll also
• 5:12
  have an audience voting worldwide.
• 5:14
  So we're pretty excited about the the Lunar Race Bar Design
• 5:18
  Challenge as well. Is this open to anybody around
• 5:22
  the globe or is it just US based?
• 5:25
  No, it's open to anyone. We we have had like a man
• 5:28
  mentioned a lot of really great international interest.
• 5:33
  So students really want to participate and and we actually
• 5:38
  started the the design challenge a little sooner than we
• 5:42
  anticipated and we did that because so many young people and
• 5:47
  all of us but mostly are housebound.
• 5:50
  So and and we're looking to provide young people and people
• 5:56
  that are interested in engaging with these young people with
• 5:59
  something that has a really positive and exciting focus at a
• 6:03
  time when we really need it. Oh, very cool.
• 6:06
  So we have. And I do want to mention,
• 6:09
  because I get this question very often, is there a registration
• 6:12
  fee or a participation fee? And the answer is no.
• 6:15
  You know what you have to have is you have to have access to a
• 6:18
  computer and you have to have access to the answer now and
• 6:21
  then. You have to have some really
• 6:23
  cool and smart friends to get together and and and you know,
• 6:28
  put the good stuff on the moon. Oh, cool.
• 6:32
  So we have a couple questions in chat.
• 6:35
  What? What is the race?
• 6:38
  What is the actual race? Will they be racing for a target
• 6:42
  or an obstacle or what? So is there a finish line?
• 6:45
  Or a great question. So we, we just this past week
• 6:50
  heard from an intuitive machines as to where the the Lander is
• 6:55
  going to touchdown and that's going to be in the the the
• 7:00
  oceans or the store, the oceans of storms.
• 7:04
  And so now what's going to happen is that when the Lander
• 7:09
  is about 30 meters off the circles of the mill, it will
• 7:15
  eject a sphere of 360° cameras. And that we don't know exactly
• 7:22
  where that's going to land, but those cameras are #1 going to
• 7:26
  capture the app to landing itself, which I believe will be
• 7:32
  the first of its kind. And then that sphere of cameras
• 7:36
  will serve as the rallying point where the, the point at which we
• 7:40
  will direct the races. So they will drive from the
• 7:44
  Lander. Probably we will have some Geo
• 7:48
  about geometric requirements along the way, but they're going
• 7:52
  to head to that camera and they're going to turn around and
• 7:55
  they're going to come back. Oh, wow.
• 7:57
  OK. Yeah.
• 7:58
  So the actual, the actual racetrack itself is still yet to
• 8:03
  be determined and there's a lot that we won't know.
• 8:06
  I I think there's a lot of golf moments in this well and there's
• 8:09
  certainly will be, no doubt about it, it.
• 8:12
  Sounds challenging. It's going to be where that
• 8:14
  sphere lands and how we can line up.
• 8:17
  Yeah, sounds like a challenging problem to solve for the racers,
• 8:21
  especially when you don't know where that sphere is.
• 8:23
  Like, how are you going to find the sphere?
• 8:25
  You know, you have to design a vehicle that's going to be able
• 8:28
  to not alone, you know, go across the lunar surface.
• 8:32
  Like, that's hard enough. But you have to find this sphere
• 8:34
  of cameras and then you have to then turn around and come back
• 8:37
  to the Lander. Well, that sounds incredibly
• 8:40
  difficult. Well, it certainly does have its
• 8:44
  challenges. The, the, the advantage that we
• 8:47
  have is that the the experts that we're working with that
• 8:51
  intuitive machines not only do they know how to build
• 8:56
  spacecraft and launch it along with human flight.
• 9:00
  They have years and years of experience both the NASA and and
• 9:04
  and commercial space. But they actually are working
• 9:08
  with us to make sure that those erasures are space worthy.
• 9:13
  And what we've discovered in in this process is that there are
• 9:17
  some significant challenges and there are some things that we
• 9:21
  we've determined that are a little bit easier than we
• 9:23
  thought they would be. One of the things that I'm
• 9:25
  really excited about is that we're going to be able to
• 9:29
  perhaps accelerate some application of technology with
• 9:33
  this project that would not we're going to be able to
• 9:38
  accelerate for example communications.
• 9:40
  Currently the data streams or communication from the moon and
• 9:46
  elsewhere have a very, very specific scientific purpose.
• 9:51
  Our purpose is to capture that race which is going to require
• 9:55
  much higher bandwidth or both on the moon, on the lunar surface
• 10:00
  and then back to Earth's. And so the companies that we are
• 10:04
  are working with in the various communications aspects of this,
• 10:09
  it's been clear that we are able to you know what what we one of
• 10:13
  the outcomes of this is that we will be able to test and prove
• 10:18
  communications on the Roaner's surface that will serve others
• 10:22
  when they get there. OK, so this is a forward
• 10:24
  thinking mission. It's not just just get the
• 10:27
  racers of the moon race around, but it's actually to serve a
• 10:30
  purpose for the future landing and other Rover missions in the
• 10:34
  future or racers even. And could we possibly see a
• 10:38
  racing circuit like NASCAR on the moon in the future?
• 10:42
  How cool would that be? That would be awesome.
• 10:46
  You're you're, you're, you're talking to someone who truly,
• 10:49
  truly enjoys motorsport and I also very much enjoy high
• 10:55
  performance driving. And so that is a reason because
• 11:00
  of the of my involvement in the sport, it became clear to me
• 11:04
  that there was really, you know, a really wonderful, you know,
• 11:10
  analogy or analogous kind of set of disciplines that was
• 11:13
  necessary both in in aerospace and in auto sports.
• 11:19
  So you've got the, the teamwork that's necessary.
• 11:22
  You've, you've got the physics, you've got the engineering,
• 11:25
  you've got the timing, you've got the the discipline and all
• 11:28
  of that and and that belongs in, in in both of these areas and
• 11:33
  both of these industries. And we thought that it would be
• 11:36
  very interesting to apply those particular skills science,
• 11:41
  technology, engineering and arts as well as mathematics in this
• 11:45
  competition. So not only are we, we are
• 11:50
  forward thinking in terms of how along the way we can accelerate
• 11:54
  technology and use of this for those that come behind us on on
• 11:58
  the lunar surface, but also the journey along the way which is
• 12:02
  really, really exciting of an adventure for these young people
• 12:06
  and and many people that they touch.
• 12:09
  Well, that's very cool. I'm, I'm glad you guys are doing
• 12:12
  this because this is so. When I was a kid, I always
• 12:16
  thought about, you know, having a moon colony and having
• 12:19
  something like this, like sports on the moon.
• 12:21
  You know, we I had these books when I was a kid and they're all
• 12:23
  illustrated and they're really cool.
• 12:25
  And I would open them up and I would imagine something like
• 12:27
  this happening, you know, and just that somebody's actually
• 12:32
  doing this in my lifetime is insane in the in the best kind
• 12:37
  of way, like in the happiest way that you could imagine that
• 12:41
  there's going to be race vehicles on the moon.
• 12:44
  Like that doesn't to me as a normal person that has nothing
• 12:48
  to do with the engineering part of this.
• 12:50
  And I'm I'm kind of like heading the clouds kind of person.
• 12:54
  This is awesome and I really want to thank you for coming out
• 12:58
  today. Now we have one last question
• 13:00
  though. What is the winner win from this
• 13:06
  race? Oh, that's a that's a great
• 13:09
  question. The winner, the the two racers
• 13:15
  that get there, OK are are both winners.
• 13:18
  They will have gone through a a more really, really rigorous set
• 13:23
  of qualifying rounds in order to get to them out.
• 13:26
  And you know the what what they're going with the the team
• 13:32
  that takes the checkered flag is going to get the checkered flag
• 13:36
  and it's also going to have the the the honor of being the first
• 13:42
  race winner on the MO. So we don't have a a cash prize
• 13:46
  or something like that. This is much actually more than
• 13:51
  them. He's deeper than that.
• 13:55
  It's just. Put They're not going to be
• 13:57
  motivated by cash. That's that's if.
• 13:59
  Someone wants to come and give them cash, then you know we'll
• 14:03
  we'll make it a good scholarship.
• 14:06
  Yeah, and I'm sure somebody might be interested in that
• 14:08
  something, you know, some sort of sports drink or something
• 14:10
  like that might be interested, or some sort of energy drink.
• 14:12
  May I? May I share one more thing we'll
• 14:14
  sure of what you you just shared about your your dream when you
• 14:18
  were a kid. So when we when we looked at at
• 14:22
  women marketing, we looked at the and and what we wanted to
• 14:26
  achieve. Things have not occurred in like
• 14:30
  what you experienced for many, many years and there's there's
• 14:35
  lots of reasons for that. It's not that we haven't had
• 14:37
  space heroes, it's not that we haven't had incredible stories.
• 14:42
  There hasn't been a a an Apollo moment since 1969.
• 14:48
  Nineteen 72, OK. Since then we we kind of let
• 14:53
  them run behind and and all of that sort of thing.
• 14:56
  We want to create because we can.
• 14:59
  Now we want to create an Apollo effect for kids.
• 15:04
  We want kids to look at other kids and say wait a minute if
• 15:08
  they can do that, I can do that And that is something that
• 15:12
  hasn't occurred for many, many years.
• 15:15
  We can do that because we ask we have accessibility through space
• 15:18
  technology that that civilians haven't had before and we also
• 15:23
  have the ability through our communications and technology to
• 15:26
  engage for worldwide. So that's what we're going.
• 15:30
  Oh, that's great. Yeah.
• 15:32
  You know, the, the, the reality of the situation is that, you
• 15:38
  know, these kind of things are going to be happening more so in
• 15:41
  the future, you know, than what I ever expected.
• 15:43
  Because we had, like you said, we had the Arpella moment when
• 15:46
  we were, you know, in the 70s, 60s and 70s.
• 15:49
  And then we have the space shuttle, we have people on the
• 15:52
  International Space Station. We don't have anything that's
• 15:56
  like a big, big idea anymore. And I think this is one of those
• 15:59
  big ideas where people can get really inspired and get behind
• 16:03
  and young people, especially the way that you're marketing this
• 16:06
  and pushing this for young kids to get involved with all of
• 16:10
  those amazing, amazing techniques that they'll be using
• 16:14
  to get a racer to the freaking moon and then race it.
• 16:19
  On the and. Then race it and then maybe
• 16:21
  wind. Who knows.
• 16:22
  I mean, if if they get one, if they get the racer to the moon,
• 16:25
  that is huge. That's a huge, huge deal for
• 16:28
  humanity. Like it's not just a a huge deal
• 16:31
  for for your company or intuitive machines or anything.
• 16:34
  Like it's a it's a huge deal for people, and for young people in
• 16:38
  particular, to move these little machines, you know, on the moon,
• 16:43
  like just getting them there and having them land, That's.
• 16:45
  Amazing. That is absolutely our our
• 16:48
  intent and we have all since we've been born, we have how
• 16:55
  every human on Earth has had an experience with the moon and by
• 16:59
  and large it's been a positive experience.
• 17:02
  And So what we're doing here is an intent is to you know a
• 17:07
  unifying experience that's positive and because we can, as
• 17:12
  I mentioned you know communicate globally, we have the ability to
• 17:17
  touch people in the way that that's meaningful to them and
• 17:21
  that's that's something that we really aspire to.
• 17:24
  That's really great. Well, I want to wrap this up for
• 17:27
  you, Mary. Thank you so much for showing up
• 17:30
  to the show today and. Oh, thank you.
• 17:33
  Yeah, you're more than welcome. And if anybody wants to check
• 17:36
  out the race, you can go to Moon, Mark, dot, Space and get
• 17:39
  more information. Is there any other place they
• 17:41
  can find you on the Internet? Well.
• 17:45
  We're we're on all all the usual suspect places.
• 17:50
  We're on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram.
• 17:54
  And check out TikTok coming up. Oh, cool.
• 17:58
  OK. Oh yeah.
• 18:00
  All right. Well, thanks so much, Mary.
• 18:01
  Appreciate it. And hopefully we will speak to
• 18:04
  you soon. Thank you very much.
• 18:06
  You'll appreciate being here. Have a great.
• 18:08
  Day. Yeah, you too.
• 18:09
  Bye, Bye. Hey, thank you so much for
• 18:11
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