''Musk’s deed is that he turned quite a routine procedure into a manifestation of the new world''
Olga Uskova about the launch of Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy
On Tuesday 6 February, the American private company SpaceХ successfully launched Falcon Heavy missile from a platform in the state of Florida. The company's CEO Elon Musk's red Tesla Roadster with a dummy driver and dressed in a space suit made by same SpaceX was the only useful burden. Several millions of people watched the process online around the world, while serious battles broke out in social networks. Some users called Musk a superhero and amazed with what had happened, and others persistently proved the launch had nothing extraordinary. Realnoe Vremya asked expert in unmanned systems, President of Cognitive Technologies group of companies Olga Uskova to express her opinion about the launch of Falcon Heavy.
''Experts say the launch didn't have disruptive technologies''
Experts say the launch didn't have disruptive technologies. Without doubt, the launch is very successful, and it's cool in itself.
Musk's main deed is that he turned quite a routine procedure into a manifestation of the new world. From a mental perspective, something similar was seen during Yury Gagarin's flight. It's colossal motivation for innovators from all over the world, a solution of global tasks, which is certainly positive. Musk demonstrated the bar American society stabbed at.
In addition, the fall of American fund indexes, what journalists could easily compare with new signs of crisis, remained almost imperceptible against a background of this event. Their accidental coincidence showed how daily financial things are smaller and insignificant in comparison with tasks of all mankind such as a trip to Mars.
Liftoff! The #SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket has launched from Kennedy Space Center's historic Pad 39A at 3:45 PM Eastern. Footage shot from the NASA Press Site. pic.twitter.com/yt6s7G0g9b
— Robin Seemangal (@nova_road) 6 февраля 2018 г.
''While what we see now is a disease of local stagnation. I think we will cope with it''
In my opinion, the nation that knows how to dream will survive anyway. The greatest mistake of the current Russian political team is that after chairing the ruined, hungry country, they thought everything would run smoothly on its own once it was fed and provided with stability. It didn't run smoothly because a goal, a dream is needed to move. It's more important than food.
Why don't we have a dream? Organisation of the process is the point. It's what Musk managed to do and what we don't try to do. We have one of the best schools of artificial intelligence in the world. Our company caused a furore with its solutions for unmanned vehicles that provide safety in a bad weather and on bad roads at CES, one of the biggest robotics and electronics exhibitions of the world. We were called the company of the year, the company of the week.
Russia does have disruptive technologies. We have things to kindle people's hearts. There are technologies the whole world is amazed at. Neither satiation nor crises have anything to do here. Such a dream is not inculcated in us. We're not set a global goal, for instance, like astronautics or nuclear physics were in the last century. It is what millions of young people in our country aspired, dedicated their lives to. Financial stimuli weren't important for some people.
I remember how two people (now they are CEO and constructor general of C-Pilot) entered my room in 2010, in the height of the crisis: ''We want to make brains for an unmanned car! We need money and a carmaker!'' You even don't imagine how futurist it sounded then. As proof of the competence, they showed me a toy car that was riding in our corridors hitting the corners! But something was in their eyes, something was in the air…
View from SpaceX Launch Control. Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth. pic.twitter.com/QljN2VnL1O
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 6 февраля 2018 г.
Somebody claims that Russia has been milling around in astronautics in recent 20 years. I don't believe it. Probably there is a regression, but in terms of organisation, in the inability to organise a process, in the absence of a project-based approach, unpunished theft, in the end. As for mathematical and engineering minds, here we are fine. The new generation 15-35 is magnificent, a generation of talents grows. While what we see now is a disease of local stagnation. I think we will cope with it.