Don’t expect the Musk to take a jab at his science laying down, Lisa.
On the last episode of The Simpsons, entitled “The Musk Who Fell To Earth,†pint-sized poindexter Lisa pointed out to Musk that for a guy who “likes electric cars he sure burns a lot of rocket fuel.” Well there are a few very good reasons why we still use rocket fuel to get us into space, as Musk defended himself on Twitter:
If u saw @TheSimpsons and wonder why @SpaceX doesn’t use an electric rocket to reach orbit, it is cuz that is impossible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015
Why is that impossible? Newton’s laws of motion:
Reason is Newton’s Third Law. In vacuum, there is nothing to “push” against. You must react against ejected mass.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015
In other words, without ejecting mass, trying to move a rocket through space would be like trying to run on a frictionless sheet of ice.
And while electric rockets may not be viable, that still doesn’t mean using rocket fuel is a bad idea:
And pls don’t ask me about space elevators until someone at least builds a carbon nanotube structure longer than a footbridge
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015
Is that the first dis you’ve seen against carbon nanotube structures? Yeah, me too.
Other technologies just aren’t ready to supersede the traditional rocket:
Ion thrusters are great, but have extremely tiny force (photon thruster even less). Must have more thrust than weight or you don’t go up.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015
And don’t think that Musk hasn’t considered some of the more flamboyant options:
Final one: anything launched by a railgun (if you could ever reach ~ Mach 27) would explode upon exiting the barrel in our dense atmosphere
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015
See? Always bet on the Musk.
he should know that using a rail gun is just a better way to initiate upward enertia.. even at just a near ground level the idea of boosting your boosters is a logical plan for reduction of fuel needed to get mobile.
also he can’t even land a rocket, his spacex falls back to earth without the capability to naturally right itself, he should try landing an umbrella first.
Yes he “defended” himself against a scene in an episode he agreed to be in, voiced and therefore knew the script of. I love how all these articles are popping up about this and acting as if the Simpson just took a jab at him so he responded. They made fun of him the entire episode. He obviously has a sense of humour and just figured he’d comment on a scene. It’s kind of hard to be “musk vs the simpsons” when it was Musk on the Simpsons.
hem what with super cvitation materials covering the capsule shot by the rail ?
NEEEERD!!!!
Anyone who has been paying attention cannot accuse Musk of not being interested in developing new tech. But he also knows you need a functional business to keep the R&D happening.
Technically, you could have an electric rocket. In fact, the ion drive essentially is that. But as Musk said, it won’t come even close to getting you to orbit. Ion drives are really good for building up acceleration slowly over a very long period so that your package is eventually going quite fast. Great for an instrument package but useless for any mission that involves moving people around.
That could change with advancements but you cannot build a business around hypotheticals. You at least need a lab demo of something that works. And history is littered with companies that never got past the lab demo stage.
…but what if the rail gun was in space?
We could use the space elevator to get it there.
At least the space elevator could be electric
OR a railgun that starts on the surface and exits into space. Thus, eliminating the need for the elevator.
Equal and opposite forces and all that jazz.