How do you know it'll last 10,000 years?
We hired materials science experts to assess materials that could reasonably be said to last 10,000 years.
What makes something last? Hardness (can it be scratched?), fracture toughness (can it be shattered?), melting point (how hard is it to melt?). But most importantly, strong resistance to the things that, given time, destroy everything: wind, rain, acid, alkalis, oxygen.
Enter Inconel, a nickel-based superalloy made by the Special Metals Corporation, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Inconel is/was in:
• SpaceX's SuperDraco rocket that carried astronauts in 2020; the Raptor engine manifold that will be used by SpaceX's Starship
• NASA's Space Shuttle; the thrust chamber of the F-1 rocket engine used for the Saturn V booster
• The Tesla Model S's main battery pack; BMW's M5 E34's exhaust manifold
• Black box recorders on aircraft
We use Inconel to build simple but elegant personalized products that stand the test of time.
Inconel, Elon Musk, and SpaceX
SpaceX foundry casting Raptor engine manifold out of Inconel pic.twitter.com/zWlqNwGj0R
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 16, 2019
SpaceX SuperDraco inconel rocket chamber w regen cooling jacket emerges from EOS 3D metal printer pic.twitter.com/Tj284OuAk1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 5, 2013
Why Ozymandias?
Percy Shelley (husband of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein) and Horace Smith wrote a pair of related poems in 1818. Smith's version said:
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,—
Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon."
Our name serves to remind that almost nothing lasts the test of time. Almost nothing.