How billionaire Elon Musk ’saves’ the world

When countries are plunged into despair, the billionaire SpaceX founder has become the man to help. But it doesn’t always go to plan.

When the world is plunged into its darkest days due to humanitarian crises, when countries are in strife and don’t know what to do, they are increasingly turning to one man.

Elon Musk, of course.

Most recently, the billionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla stepped in to protect Ukraine’s internet connection during the Russian invasion, providing an invaluable lifeline for those caught in the war zone.

And it’s not the first time he has stepped in to save the day.

Ukraine’s internet connection

When Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov asked the eccentric businessman for help, Musk jumped into action.

“@elonmusk, while you try to colonise Mars – Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space – Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people!” Mr Fedorov, also the country’s Digital Transformation Minister, tweeted.

“We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand.”

Within hours of the plea, Musk announced that Starlink communication satellites had become active in the embattled country.

“Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” Musk tweeted 10 hours after the call for help. “More terminals en route.”

Musk has launched thousands of Starlink satellites into the Earth’s orbit via SpaceX, which allows internet access without the need for fibre-optic cabling.

International space station threat

Amid threats from Russia’s space chief Dmitry Rogozin against the International Space Station (ISS), the billionaire CEO pledged that SpaceX will come to the rescue.

“If you block co-operation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States and Europe?” Mr Rogozin tweeted after US President Joe Biden announced sanctions against Russia.

Musk responded with the SpaceX logo, and when questioned by a Twitter user if that meant SpaceX would save the ISS from falling onto Earth, he said: “Yes.”

Russia is among a 15-nation partnership keeping the ISS orbiting Earth for 23 years.

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“If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States & Europe”

I think Elon is referring to this above (translation provided by Twitter).

So Elon answered: SpaceX

— tes.3m.22 (@tes1m211) February 26, 2022

SpaceX’s Starlink satellites seen passing over Uruguay. Picture: Mariana Suarez/AFP

Tonga volcanic eruption and tsunami

When a volcanic eruption and tsunami cut off Tonga’s internet access six weeks ago, Musk offered help.

The underwater fibre-optic cable connecting the South Pacific nation to the rest of the world was severed during the disaster, leaving many with poor or non-existent connections.

Last week, Musk launched a free high-speed internet service to connect remote villages in the country with 50 VSAT terminals provided by SpaceX, the Australian Financial Review reported.

It will remain in place until the cable can be repaired.

“It is rather paradoxical for a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami to bring to our shores the latest in satellite and communications technology,” Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said.

“Elon Musk probably didn’t know much about Tonga until January 15, but gave generously.”

Puerto Rico hurricane

When Hurricane Maria left millions of Puerto Rico residents without power in 2017, Musk stepped in, donating more than 1000 solar-powered batteries to the island.

He also offered to fix and improve the island’s power grid in a casual tweet.

The Tesla team has done this for many smaller islands around the world, but there is no scalability limit, so it can be done for Puerto Rico too. Such a decision would be in the hands of the PR govt, PUC, any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2017

The island’s governor at the time, Ricardo Rossello, said: “Let’s talk.”

@elonMusk Let's talk. Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that flagship project. https://t.co/McnHKwisqc

— Ricardo Rosselló (@ricardorossello) October 6, 2017

By 2018, Musk said that Tesla was working on a staggering 11,000 projects in the area. However all hasn’t gone to plan and in the time since, much of the equipment has fallen into disrepair, according to a May 2019 Huffington Post report.

Thailand’s cave rescue

While he doesn’t always succeed in his attempts to help where there’s a crisis, Musk certainly tries. Unfortunately things don’t always go smoothly.

An example of this was when he gathered engineers from Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Company to create a “kid-size” submarine in a bid to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018.

However, the chief of the rescue mission deemed the device not practical and it was not used.

Musk was furious after a British diver involved in the rescue called his actions a “PR stunt” and said the submarine was not going to work in the cave scenario, to which the billionaire called the diver a “pedo guy” in a since-deleted tweet.

The diver, Vernon Unsworth, then filed a defamation lawsuit against Musk, but he was cleared. He had insisted the phrase he tweeted off-the-cuff “was obviously a flippant insult, and no one interpreted it to mean paedophile”.

In more positive news, following the cave rescue, SpaceX met with members of the Thai Navy to train them in using the submarine after a Thai military official said it could be useful for future missions.

The boys were trapped in a section of Tham Luang cave in Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park. Picture: Thai Navy SEALs via Getty Images

America’s Covid-19 ventilator shortage

When the pandemic started spreading globally and hospitals ran out of ventilators, Musk worked on shipping medical devices to hospitals in need and worked on producing ventilator parts.

However, instead of the type of ventilators that could save patients with severe Covid-19, he delivered more than a thousand sleep apnoea machines.

These machines may help those with milder coronavirus cases, however.

“We think it’s great that Tesla purchased bi-level non-invasive ventilators from a platform of ours that we developed five years ago in Asia and sent them to New York,” ResMed CEO Mick Farrell told Financial Times.

“We applaud any company who can help get ventilators and other respiratory products to those in need.”

More successful was his talks with Geoff Martha, CEO of Medtronic, one of the world’s top ventilator manufacturers, helping them with a key part of the machines that matched a part used in SpaceX rockets.

Musk helped hospitals with ventilators. Picture: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

Global hunger

When David Beasley, executive director for the UN’s World Food Programme, told CNN that “the billionaires need to step up now on a one-time basis” to help millions of people at risk of starvation, Musk was sceptical.

He tweeted if the organisation “can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $US6 billion [$A8.2 billion] will solve world hunger,” he would sell Tesla stock and donate.

“But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.”

To this, Beasley said Musk could “review and work with us to be totally confident” of the accounting and clarified that he didn’t say a $6 billion donation would “solve world hunger”.

“This is a one-time donation to save 42 million lives during this unprecedented hunger crisis.”

While there’s not been confirmation from Musk of the donation yet, weeks later he sold 5,044,000 Tesla shared and donated around $US5.47 billion to charity. However, which charity received the donation is unclear.