Author: Gail Alfar

Gail has a bachelor of art in film/radio/tv and a bachelor of science in nursing She has worked for years caring for all ages of people with many diagnoses in over 5 hospitals and schools around the texas hill country Originally from north dakota, she is now based in austin and writes about sustainable energy for the website she created ‘What’s up Tesla’ and 'What's up Twitter' and maintains her nursing practice

Gail’s Podcast on 𝕏 Episode No. 121: Discussion of Solar

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Austin, Texas. FSD acts like a very smooth operator. In this podcast we stop at a sunny overlook of Lake Travis, get out, and discuss the importance of building solar, and shade canopies. I mention Jesse Peltan, as he has been instrumental in helping spread the word about the importance of accelerating solar.

FOR MEDIA USE ONLY News media is welcome to use my material in connection with a story or article. By downloading any content I create, you understand and hereby agree and represent that: (1) you are a member of the news media; (2) use of the content is in connection with a story or an article appearing in newspapers, periodicals, digital publications or television; (3) all images and rights thereto remain the property Gail Alfar.; and (4) use of the image is not for publication covers, advertising, promotion or otherwise for commercial purposes. Furthermore, use of any and all images and content appearing on this page must each include the notice “Courtesy of Gail Alfar” Use of materials copied from this website is at your own risk. You must obtain prior written consent from Gail Alfar for uses that exceed the above parameters.

ORBITAL PROPELLANT TRANSFER

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

“A key technology for Mars is orbital propellant transfer, like aerial refueling for airplanes, but for rockets. It’s never been done but is technically feasible”

Elon: And one of the technologies that is key for Mars, is doing orbital propellant transfer. So you can think of this like, similar to aerial refueling for airplanes, but in this case it’s orbital refilling of rockets, which has never been done before, it is technically feasible. I always feel like these things are a little NSFW (laughter), sort of.

Listen, you’ve got to transfer fluid somehow, it’s just got to be done! So the two Starships would get together, and one Starship would transfer fuel and oxygen, and most of the mass is oxygen. It is almost 80% oxygen that gets transferred. A little over 20% fuel and so you send a Starship to orbit that is full of payload and then you send up a bunch of other Starships up and then you would refill the propellant on that Starship. And once the propellant tanks are mostly full then you can depart for Mars or the Moon.

This is important technology, which we should hopefully demonstrate next year.

Source: Video from Elon Musk’s 2026 Mars Company Talk

Tesla Launches Virtual Power Plant in Japan

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Tesla Japan announced on X the nationwide launch of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP), offering free Powerwall installations to eligible participants. A sign-up link is provided on Tesla Japan’s website. A VPP is similar to a conventional power plant in that it provides energy to businesses and homes. It connects many Powerwalls to form a larger power source, stabilizing the grid and supplying power to individual homes or businesses.

What are DERs?
Distributed Energy Resources (DER) combine with Tesla’s advanced software and infrastructure to aggregate energy, ensuring reliable power during blackouts.

Tesla partners with Global Engineering and Fuyo General Lease to deliver this DER aggregation service, potentially supported by Japanese government subsidies through the Long-Term Decarbonization Auction (up to 90% cost coverage for battery storage). This aligns with Elon Musk’s Master Plan 3 for global sustainable energy.

Read more

Energy Reliability from Big Batteries for Texas and Beyond

What did Elon Musk have to say about energy in an interview with Johnna Crider and Gail Alfar?

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). A solution for reliable and less expensive power for all.

Virtual Power Plants, or VPPs, may seem small, however they are poised to take center stage in the Energy Transition.

Tesla’s Texas Virtual Power Plant ASAP

Tesla is fully prepared to step in with a smart solution to power blackouts.

[Lots of cheers and applause for Raptor 3 at Elon's Mars 2023 Company Talk]

RAPTOR 3 ENGINE

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

“Raptor 3 requires no basic heat shield, saving mass and improving reliability”

Elon: This is the new Raptor 3, an awesome engine! Big hand to the Raptor team. Raptor 3 requires no basic heat shield, saving mass and improving reliability. A small fuel leak will leak into the flaming plasma and not matter, unlike a boxed engine where it’s scary. It’ll take a few tries, but it’ll massively increase payload capability, efficiency, and reliability. It’s alien technology.

Industry experts thought an incomplete Raptor 3 picture wasn’t firing, but it was at unprecedented efficiency.

[Lots of cheers and applause for Raptor 3 at Elon's Mars 2023 Company Talk]

[Lots of cheers and applause for Raptor 3 at Elon’s Mars 2023 Company Talk]

CATCHING STARSHIP

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

“The next goal is to catch the ship”

Elon: We haven’t done this yet, but we will.

Elon: We hope to demonstrate this later this year, maybe in two or three months. The ship would be placed on the booster, refilled, and flown again. The ship takes longer because it orbits Earth a few times until the ground track returns to the launchpad. It’s intended to be reflown multiple times per day.

[Video during Elon’s Mars 2026 Company Talk shows a render of a Starship gently caught by chopsticks.]

CATCHING THE GIANT ROCKET

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Elon Musk: Congrats to the SpaceX team on catching the giant rocket!

Elon: It’s mind-blowing that the SpaceX team has caught the largest flying object ever made multiple times using a novel method of catching it with giant chopsticks!

[SpaceX employees and Elon pause to watch a video showing the booster, with fiery engines, descending through space, adjusting, and being caught with chopsticks.]

Elon: Have you ever seen that before?

[The video is awe-inspiring. Elon congratulates his team, calling it quite an achievement. Everyone cheers; it’s an emotional moment.]

Elon: We catch it this way, which has never been done before, to make the rocket rapidly reusable. If the super heavy booster, 30 feet in diameter, landed with legs on a pad, we’d have to pick it up, stow the legs, and move it back to the launch pad, which is difficult.

But catching it with the same tower that places it in the launch mount is the best for rapid reuse. It’s caught by the arms that placed it, then set back in the launch ring immediately. In principle, the super heavy booster can be reflown within an hour of landing. It returns in five or six minutes, gets caught, placed back, refilled with propellant in 30 to 40 minutes, and a ship placed on top. It could refly every hour or two.

Image Courtesy SpaceX, Inc and source Elon Musk’s Mars 2026 company talk.

BECOMIMG A MULTIPLANETARY CIVILIZATION

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

“Progress is measured by the timeline to establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars”

Elon: With each launch, especially early on, we learn more about what’s needed to make life multiplanetary and improve Starship to take hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to Mars.

Ideally, we can take anyone who wants to go and bring all equipment necessary to make Mars self-sustaining, so Mars can grow by itself.

Worst-case scenario, we reach the point where Mars can continue to grow even if supply ships from Earth stop for any reason.

At that point, we’ve achieved civilization resilience, where Mars could rescue Earth or vice versa.

Having two self-sustaining planets is incredibly important for long-term survival. A multi-planet civilization is likely to last ten times longer than a single-planet one because of risks like World War III, meteors, or supervolcanoes. With two planets, we keep going, then move beyond Mars to the asteroid belt, Jupiter’s moons, and other star systems, making science fiction reality. To achieve this, we need rapidly reusable rockets to keep the cost per ton to Mars as low as possible. That’s essential. We need rapidly reliable rockets—it’s like a pirate’s “Rrrr”: rapidly reusable, reliable rockets!

Image Courtesy SpaceX, Inc and source Elon Musk’s Mars 2026 company talk.

STARSHIP VS. TESLA: SCALING MANUFACTURING

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Elon Musk: When we look at our build comparison in vehicles per year, Boeing and Airbus make airplanes, but SpaceX will probably make as many Starships for Mars as Boeing and Airbus make commercial airplanes. This is an enormous scale, and each Starship is bigger than a 747 or an A380.

In terms of Starlink satellites, version three satellites, we’ll make on the order of 5,000 per year, and at some point, closer to 10,000 per year. Those Starlink V3 satellites are roughly the size of a 737 (unfurled). They compare to the B-24 bomber in World War II.

The scale of production is still small compared to Tesla.

Elon: Tesla will probably double or triple that volume in the future. It puts things into perspective that it’s possible to build a vast number of interplanetary Starships. Even when comparing tonnage, Tesla and other car companies produce far more complex manufactured tonnage than SpaceX, showing it’s achievable. These numbers, while insanely high by traditional space standards, are achievable because they’ve been achieved in other industries.

GIGA BAY EXPANSION

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Elon: There’s a person next to it that looks like a tiny ant. That’s our Giga Bay!

[Elon points to a render of a massive building]

We’re expanding integration to produce 1,000 per year. The Giga Bay hasn’t been built yet, but we’re building it. It’s a truly enormous structure, one of the biggest in the world by some measures, designed for 1,000 Starships per year. We’re also building a Giga Bay in Florida, so we’ll have two facilities—one in Texas and one in Florida. It’s difficult to gauge the size of these buildings because you need a human for scale. When you see how tiny a human is next to it, you realize how enormous it is.

Source: Elon’s Mars 2026 Company Talk

STARBASE IN 2025

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Elon: We’re now at the point where we can produce a ship roughly every two or three weeks. We don’t always produce a ship every two or three weeks because we’re making design upgrades, but ultimately we’re aiming for the ability to produce 1,000 ships a year, so three ships a day.

[On the video, birds chirp, water glistens, and a hovercraft pulls gently away from Starbase Beach.]

Elon (smiling): That’s our hovercraft. We’re driving the booster down the road to the launch site. You see the Megabays. The cool thing for those watching is you can literally come here, drive down the road, and see it. This is the first time in history that’s been possible. That highway on the left is public. You can just come and see it, which I recommend. It’s very inspiring.

Source: Elon’s Mars 2026 Company Talk