Recognized as a genius of technologyexperts, Musk is the first and only private entrepreneur to carry material to the International Space Station around the world with the Space X rocket that can be used multiple times. The currently developed rocket is on the agenda to use for manned flight around 2030 to Mars.
Elon Musk was this week the guest of Turkey. He had a meeting with President Erdogan which is meaningful because the new local automobile investment of Turkey was presented last week. The first collaboration was announced after Musk’s meeting with Airbus’s main carrier,SpaceX, Turksat 5A and 5B satellites will be sent out in 2020 and 2021.
Transportation, Maritime and Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan, who realized 3rd Global SatShow’s opening speech, announced that Turksat 5A and 5B satellites will move away with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. Elon Musk expressed that he was pleased that Falcon 9 was preferred to launch Turksat 5A and 5B in the distance, in a meeting with President Erdogan.
Although the issue of the launching the titles is shared as the main item in the agenda, the Turkish Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın stated that this issue was not discussed. During the meeting, he said that also opinions were exchanged on the subject of electric cars, sustainable energy and joint ventures with companies in Turkey, like Tesla and SpaceX, which Elon Musk owns. Ibrahim Kalin said that the traffic problems in the big cities were also mentioned during the interview, and “topics such as tunnel digging and underground traffic were also discussed”.
We also know that Elon Musk’s big interest in transportation and the fact that he is intensely focused on The Boring Company, and in this context he also tries to determine the first countries where he can test his projects by interviewing relevant actors of many countries. So under this information we can say that Elon Musk may be able to make more visits to Turkey in the following periods, especially about tunneling and traffic underground.
The knowledge of Elon Musk and his team can be used on the newly developed domestic car, as well as the choice of Turkey for the production of Tesla batteries or Tesla vehicles. Solar City project, another important energy project initiated by Elon Musk, could also be the next step in Turkey’s energy production from solar energy. Turkey’s efficient hours of sunshine is quite high and it will be very valuable in terms of our future to store and use this energy in a storable system.
We can collect Elon Musk’s visit under many titles which can be very beneficial for Turkey also to Elon Musk. Considering the automotive sector success of Turkey in 2017 and also the big renewable energy potential can carry this partnership to another dimension. Elon Musk and his company is always very hungry to try breakthrough projects, and Turkey is a good field of study in geographical demographical and geopolitical sense.
Also after the social media post of Elon Musk we can see that he has a big interest in Turkey and he made researches and have good knowledge about its history. After his meeting with Erdogan, he went to Ataturk’s mouseloum and shared a good photo with meaningful caption. He gained a respect and love of the Turkish people too.
Conexio is a consulting firm in Turkey based in Istanbul that provides services to local and foreign companies with commercial or investment interests in the region.