Sep 4, 2022
Updated: Sep 27, 2022
You may take for granted the fact that Elon Musk's name now invariably appears alongside the words "Mars" and "space." But that wasn't always the case, especially not back in 1952, two decades before Musk was even born.
It just so happens that Musk's first name, Elon, appeared in the German scientist's, Wernher von Braun, book The Mars Project as a connection to Mars exploration.
In his science fiction novel, von Braun writes about a futuristic (at the time the book was published this meant the 1980s) people who would colonize Mars, and who would be led by someone called "Elon."
How in the sweet name of all things possible could von Braun predict Musk's involvement with Mars?
Well, after closer inspection, and translation (the first version was published in German, followed by an English one in 1953), someone called Pranay Pathole explained via a Twitter post that the "Elon" in the book "isn't the name of the person but rather the name of the position - something like an elected meritocratic president."
So even though the coincidence is still worthy of a mention, von Braun didn't quite predict that Elon would be leading the colonizers on Mars, but that someone who held the title "Elon" would. In any case, the link is far too supernatural to go unmentioned.
The whole coincidence was brought up on Twitter after Musk himself posted a short and sweet message saying "Destiny, destiny, No escaping that for me." To which someone called Toby Li jumped at the opportunity to respond with the 1952 book linking Elon to Mars.
There was no mention of Elon buying Twitter, or not buying Twitter, in the book.
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