Oh, I kind of doubt it. I’d think Musk’s parents could answer as to how he was named, though. (Elon’s dad was a pilot and engineer, and was contemporaneous with the US space program while von Braun was out and about, so… who knows.)
As to the coincidence: I don’t know how popular the name ‘Elon’ was in von Barun’s and Musk’s places and times, but if I replace ‘Elon’ with ‘John’, the oddness of the Mars connection pretty much goes away for me.
The only thing I find significantly unusual though is von Braun’s use of ‘Elon’, which is a Hebrew name, one that von Barun (he being a Nazi and member of the SS) may have been ‘sensitive’ to and aware of prior to writing the book. But the book was written in 1949 (at least published then) when von Braun was living in the US, so I’m wondering now if von Braun chose ‘Elon’ for some specific reason.
