Elon Musk and SpaceX’s Goal Setting and Success

Hello Friends, I trust that you had a wonderful weekend and hope that your week will be prosperous and productive. My weekend was relatively uneventful. Sunday morning I shoveled snow and later in the day Michelle and I went to a kids Christmas party in Toronto with Marisa.

My blog today is about goal setting and success of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). I was inspired to blog about SpaceX and Elon Musk after watching about 2 minutes of Elon Musk being interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on CNN’s GPS Sunday morning. According to SpaceX’s website the company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. Elon Musk is a billionaire and the founder of SpaceX and cofounder of PayPal.

Elon Musk caught my attention during his interview with Fareed Zakaria when he said "The key thing for SpaceX is to develop the technology to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars.” I was struck by Elon Musk’s statement because it is not just bold, it also a rather lofty mission and goal. As someone who is fascinated by space I decided to Google I SpaceX and Elon Musk.

I read online that Musk envisages a colony with 80,000 people on the red planet. The funny thing I discovered that Elon Musk and SpaceX are not the only ones thinking about travel to Mars. I also read online that earlier this year a Dutch company called Mars One began looking for volunteer astronauts to fly to Mars and that departure for the Red Planet is scheduled for 2022, landing seven months later in 2023.

Allow me to put this all in context for you. I am a big fan of Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic company which plans to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions, and orbital launches of small satellites. Further in the future, Virgin Galactic hopes to offer orbital human spaceflights as well. Elon Musk and SpaceX plan is to colonise Mars which in my mind supersede the goals of Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic when it comes to space travel. Elon Musk believes in his mission. I read online that in November 2012 he spoke about his lofty goal of Mars Colonisation when he was the guest of honour at the Royal Aeronautical Society.

From what I have read online about the Dutch company I mentioned above travelers to Mars are not likely to return to earth and will be expected to finish out their lives on Mars. Think of it this way, scientist believes human beings might be able to survive on Mars. However, once on Mars the physiological changes in the human body would make it difficult for voyagers to survive in Earth's conditions. Yet despite this knowledge Elon Musk is speaking about the colonisation of Mars. 

Another factor to take into consideration is that the technology does not currently exist that will allow us to travel to Mars much less to think about returning from Mars. To return from Mars, voyagers would require a rocket capable of escaping the gravitational field of Mars, on-board life support systems capable of up to a seven-month voyage and the capacity either to dock with a space station orbiting Earth or perform a safe re-entry and landing.

One of the key factors we learn about goal setting and success is that goals must be realistic and attainable. Elon Musk and SpaceX’s goal is truly bold and lofty. I cannot tell you whether they are realistic and attainable but what I do know is that Mars exploration is full of uncertainties. Elon Musk and SpaceX acknowledge the uncertainties involve in space exploration and Mars colonisation. He knows that uncertainties does not mean unrealistic or unattainable.

The plan to colonise Mars relies on improvements in technology which Elon Musk admits those improvements aren't simple to predict. Advances and improvement in technology will turn his dreams into possibilities. Ever step that is taken to improve space technology will make his goals closer to reality and closer to being attainable. 

We also know that success is measured by the things we do and accomplished allow the way in fulfilling our missions and goals. However, you can only celebrate small successes if you take action. Nothing is accomplished without action. In order for SpaceX to survive and pay its bills it has to be able to serve important customers like NASA, launching commercial broadcasting communication satellites, GPS satellites, mapping and science experiments. A key point to note about Elon Musk and SpaceX’s plan is that their focus is on handling transportation to Mars and not the actual colonies. Elon Musk’s SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. They executing their plans by are acting on the things that are currently within their control and capabilities.

We are likely to benefit from Elon Musk’s lofty dream to contribute to the colonisation of Mars. In designing rockets and spacecraft Elon Musk and SpaceX are likely to contribute to improved communication technology, improvement in science and medicine, better understanding of the universe, climate change and the environment. This is a lot of benefit when we consider this is only one man’s dream!

Elon Musk and others thinking about colonisation of Mars know that there are no infrastructure on Mar but they are not afraid of dreaming. The people who will likely travel to Mars will need to take care of their dead and as such there will likely need a crematorium. They will have to take care of their medical care. They will have to think about hydration in which case they will get some water by recycling their urine. It will be a lonely and dangerous life subsisting for extended periods on dried and canned food. The gap between "having the technology" to "sending people to Mars with the technology” is unknown. The time it will take to develop the technology is also unknown.

My take away from Fareed Zakaria’s GPS on CNN interview with Elon Musk yesterday is that our mission and goals must be bold. The can even be lofty. Our plans don’t have to be perfect. They can be sketchy at best. It does not mean we should not dream. It does not mean we should not set goals. It does not mean we should not measure success by the things we do and accomplished along the way in the pursuit of our missions, goals and successes.

Today I would like to encourage you to think of your goal setting and success in the same way as Elon Musk and SpaceX.

Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in financial services regulation and supervision as well as a professional motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor.  He can be contacted by email mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622. Read my blog http://mastbmckenzie.blogspot.ca/ and always write me a comment and share. Follow me on Twitter @mackynacky. Connect with me on www.youtube.com, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.