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Elon Musk is one of the most beguiling men on the planet. Whilst still a student he changed the way we paid for products over the internet with a revolutionary piece of tech (PayPal) and has since gone on to change a many other areas of our lives through his companies Tesla, Space X and Solar City.
There may only be 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and 365 days in a year, but for Elon Musk that is plenty of time to get a few things done. Here is what he achieved in 2017.
January: Elon Musk heads to the White House
Donald Trump's first week in office was met by some confusion and a bunch of important planning meetings.
One of which was with his new business council, a group of advisors made up of some of the brightest minds in the country.
Of course Musk was there alongside Michael Dell and Under Armour founder Kevin Plank. On the table for discussion was trade, taxes, and regulations.
And although Musk's role on the council would later be shown to be short lived, it does demonstrate the type of year her would be in for.
February: Elon Musk gets cracking on The Boring Company
March: Elon Musk's Space X makes space history with recycled rocket
In March of this year there was a new first for Elon and the world. SpaceX successfully launched and then retrieved its first recycled rocket, a historic feat aimed at driving down the costs of space exploration.
After taking off, the Falcon 9 core landed back on the ocean platform with the help of a broadcasting satellite. "This is a huge day. My mind's blown, frankly," Musk said. He called it an "incredible milestone in the history of space" and predicted, "this is going to be a huge revolution in spaceflight."
April: Elon Musk reveals plans for Tesla to take over trucking
Not content with cars, energy and space, Elon set his sight on trucking in April, unveiling plans for his Tesla autonomous trucks. Looking to deliver on a promise he made back in 2016, Musk revealed the 'master plan' for commercial transportation. In a press announcement Musk outlined that he sae two types of electric consumer vehicles, "Heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport".
Musk confirmed that both were in development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year.
May: Elon Musk tries to persuade Trump to adhere to Paris agreement
In May leaders from across the tech world clubbed together to urge president Trump not to pull the US out of the Paris environmental agreement in the form of an open letter.
Thirty execs, including Musk warned of the dangers to the future of the planet if his shortsighted won over the long-term benefit of humanity.
In that letter they wrote: "We are committed to working with you to create jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness, and we believe this can be best achieved by remaining in the Paris Agreement."
Although not alone, Musk once again led from the front.
June: Elon Musk publishes plan to take us all to Mars
September 2016 saw Musk take to the stage in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he laid out his vision to colonize Mars with his company SpaceX.
It's an ambitious plan; flying 1 million people to the red planet as a sort of "backup drive" for Earth at a cost of $100,000 to $200,000 per person. That and the fact that Musk delivered the presentation just weeks after a SpaceX rocket blew up on a Launchpad, made it impressively bold.
The June publication of academic journal New Space, saw Musk outline his vision for Mars in an article that reads like an edited summary of his September talk. In it, Musk describes his argument for reusing rockets to reduce the cost of spaceflight a thousandfold and also includes descriptions of early designs of the spacecraft he hopes to build for the endeavor.
July: Elon Musk gets 'government approval' for east coast Hyperloop
"Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins."
So read the tweet from Musk about the new Hyperloop that garnered more than 75,000 shares, according to Newswhip's SPIKE Technology.
The Hyperloop is Musk's work-in-progress - a new form of travel that would use magnetic levitation to propel pods full of passengers through underground tunnels at more than 700 mph. It's a speed that would see you get from Washington D.C. to Manhattan in 29 minutes.
August: Elon Musk commits to stopping killer robots
When he says A.I. could be humanity's largest "existential threat," Elon Musk isn't kidding.
In an open letter urging the U.N. to prevent the mass adoption of killer robots, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX joined more than a hundred global technology executives. Stating, "Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare," the petition was released ahead of a U.N. meeting of government experts on autonomous weapons.
The letter adds, "Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend...Once this Pandora's box is opened, it will be hard to close."
September: Elon Musk reveals idea to solve long-haul flights
As one of his latest ideas, Musk wants to use rockets for international travel. As reported by The Verge: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiled revised plans to travel to the moon and Mars at a space industry conference today, but he ended his talk with a pretty incredible promise: using that same interplanetary rocket system for long distance travel on Earth. Musk showed a demonstration of the idea on stage, claiming that it will allow passengers to take "most long-distance trips" in just 30 minutes, and go "anywhere on Earth in under an hour" for around the same price of an economy airline ticket.
October: Elon Musk used solar panels to power a children's hospital in Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 20th. Causing severe floods and damage, the entire Island faced a state of emergency with residents having little access to electricity, running water, a working sewage system and cell service even a month after the impact.
With the help of solar panels, Tesla brought power to the children's hospital, Hospital del Ni?o. Musk announced that "this is the first of many solar and battery Tesla projects going live in Puerto Rico." The achievement was nothing short of incredible for Puerto Rico and serves as an example of how innovation can bypass policy to create faster solutions for those in dire need.
November: Elon Musk builds world's largest battery in 100 days
Musk beat the odds, and his own self-imposed deadline, by completing the world's largest battery at a wind farm in South Australia. For the region's 1.7 million inhabitants who suffer frequent power outages, it comes as great news.
After a heat wave in February caused yet another major outage, Tesla's VP of energy products Lindon Rive announced that the company could solve the problem by building a 100MW lithium-ion battery pack in 100 day or less at the Hornsdale wind farm owned by French company Neoen.
It was a promise that came under scrutiny from Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes who questioned the likelihood of the 100-day completion over Twitter. To that Musk replied: "Tesla will get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free. That serious enough for you?"
December: Elon plans to send a Tesla to Mars
Elon Musk plans to launch his red Tesla Roadster to Mars orbit in 2018. Sources have confirmed the tech mogul and billionaire is serious and if Musk's track record and reported capabilities of his new rocket are anything to go by, it looks likely.
2010 saw Musk launch a wheel of cheese into orbit during the maiden voyage of Dragon, a spaceship built by his aerospace company, SpaceX. Since then, he's gone on to create Falcon Heavy, the new rocket by SpaceX and their biggest launcher, capable of sending a payload of 37,000 pounds (or nearly 14 Tesla Roadsters' worth of mass) to Mars.
According to Musk, the inaugural Falcon Heavy launch will occur in January 2018.
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This article originally appeared on gq.com.au
