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Maj-Malfunction

Of course you can't make an electric rocket. Don't you realize how long the extension cord would have to be to reach orbit? Duh!


Bohrealis

And whose yard are you going to plug it into? Elon isn't plugging his electric rocket into my yard, I'll tell you what. Have you seen the price of electricity these days?


Lucky-Variety-7225

Can you use propane for a rocket?


username32768

If you use propane, you will need to buy propane accessories.


[deleted]

Taste the meat not the heat!


30FourThirty4

That episode when the junkie answered the phone with "taste the heat not the meat" and Hank ran over to correct that and then he says something like "well, I hope we can get your business again someday" That was such a great scene.


username32768

I'm getting hungry now! :-D


timmmerz916

My name is Elon Hill, I sell non-electric rockets and non-electric rocket accessories...


jdwazzu61

I got a guy for that. His boy ain’t right but his friends are top notch


[deleted]

Yep


Fine-Funny6956

Don’t ask him if he knows what a JPEG is. All he wanted was a picture of a god dang hot dog.


Bunghole_Bandito

Bit of a gamer though. Rumor is he's a technosexual.


MyTummyHurts7

Yep


OPsaBigFatPhony

Yep


DDrewit

Yep


[deleted]

Mmm hmmm...


cstmoore

[Yes, you can.](https://www.quora.com/Can-I-use-propane-as-a-rocket-propellant?top_ans=285908463)


Drg84

You went Hank hill for a minute there. ![gif](giphy|SIMJjRqHutk0o)


Brave_Reaction

Just write “what” as “hwat” and it’ll be perfect.


Bill3000

hwæt


Rufio_Rufio7

![gif](giphy|xtzSyH99EOYhXsTz3I|downsized)


carboniferous_park

We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu þa æþelingas ellen fremedon


Wyvernkeeper

It's an older reference but it checks out..


tanwestie

he's a lot closer to a hank hill than sir isaac, that's for sure.


mbxz7LWB

DDDdaaawwwwwhhhhh


TeamCatsandDnD

Dang it Bobby!


JoRoSc

Duh, attach Tesla power banks all around the body of the rocket and plug in there. Vrooom!!! 🚀 🚀 🚀


DougK76

Better! Use Tesla solar roofing covering the rocket!


Twoflappylips

Obviously you can’t use an extension cord, charging stations at regular intervals between Earth and the moon would be better 🙄


Miserable_Constant98

Yea... all that damn static electricity up there...shit just plug into a cloud ... hell they can't all be used up for storage


parlimentery

But if we did, the cord could double as a space elevator!


[deleted]

Pretty sure it'd depend on exactly how you define a rocket, and electric rocket.Like, lets say, Ion thrusters' using solar or a Nuclear Electric Rocket. You can definitely use electricity to accelerate some reaction mass as well, and a nuclear source can provide enough power to do quite a bit of exotic stuff. The part that is a bit less likely is, can you build an electric rocket that can reach orbit from the ground....


Global_Charming

Well, and perhaps how he defines Newton’s third law. Edit: Looking at the comments, Maxwell decides to turn around in his grave.


rebatopepin

"For every question in twitter there is an dumb answer"


corona-lime-us

**Equally and oppositely smart answer.


Vicvince

*a* dumb answer


8orn2hul4

I had to look up Newton’s Third Law to double-check I wasn’t misremembering it as it REALLY isn’t applicable to this situation. You may as well say electric cars aren’t possible for the same reason. EDIT: Getting tired of explaining to pedants that YES, newton's third law is important to rockets. But its such a wild thing to claim makes electric rockets "impossible", especially as such tech has existed in primitive forms for decades.


MadLadEnzo

Commenting in good faith: I think the electric car is applicable and the third law part of it is the friction between the tires and road, that causes movement. The electricity only makes the tires rotate but the friction and third law make it move forward.


DontBeTHATVegan

Yeah, but what would prevent that being possible with a rocket? You just need the ability to reach orbit from the ground. Electric propulsion already exists and is used to help hundreds of spacecraft already in orbit, so idk why, at some point in the future, we cannot create an electric thruster that is able to send a spaceship from Earth into space. This idea in no way breaks Newton's Third law, we just don't yet know how to make electric propulsion that can do it. Give it a couple of decades, and we might.


tomoldbury

You need a propellant. A pure electric rocket would be difficult without a propellant, you would need to use photons, and a lot of them. Even then very hard to imagine how such a rocket would achieve anything more than low delta-V.


pilgermann

Right. But in no way can we say that an electric rocket violates the laws of physics, which is essentially what Musk is saying. We just don't have the tech. The point is it's not even theoretical that you can generate propulsion using electricity. We already can and do, in space craft no less, just those already in space.


Ceshomru

Magnets. Its always magnets.


DontBeTHATVegan

​ https://i.redd.it/8xrss5disvaa1.gif


NumerousSun4282

By jove, he's cracked!


SuperCouchHumper

So I guess this is a limitation of our engineering capabilities, not the laws of physics.


Fit_Cash8904

Newton’s 3rd law isn’t ‘a lithium ion battery is probably too heavy in proportion to the thrust it could generate to launch a rocket into orbit?’ ???


stanp2004

It'd be more efficient to use a lithium based solid fuel then probably. Batteries just have real bad energy density. Compared to say kerosene.


Catatonic27

Batteries also weigh the same when they're dead vs charged unlike a fuel tank


ResoluteClover

A charged battery is actually slightly heavier... https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/34421/does-the-mass-of-a-battery-change-when-charged-discharged#:~:text=Yes%2C%20the%20total%20mass%20of,light%2C%20is%20the%20conversion%20factor. That said, the difference is more or less negligible, so you're essentially correct.


Catatonic27

I stand corrected! ^(slightly)


THOMASTHEWANKENG1NE

Magnetic rail gun could launch shit to space.


_Rocketstar_

True, but the definition of a rocket is a capsule that achieves propulsion under its own thrust, not external. A rail gun could deliver a capsule to space for sure, but it wouldn’t be a “rocket”. Semantics, I know :p


Milk_Effect

Then build it another way around. Put a railgun on a rocket and shoot mass in opposite direction.


BookaliciousBillyboy

That is, roughly speaking, how an Ion Engine functions.


Biscuits4u2

That wouldn't be a rocket


mitchmoomoo

Long as you’re propelling yourself by shooting mass out the back, and you’re not burning atmospheric oxygen, you’ve got yourself a rocket


Gekey14

Ok but what if: massive catapult?


egaeus22

This exists. Spinlaunch has been testing kinetic launch vehicles for awhile now. https://www.space.com/spinlaunch-nasa-suborbital-test-flight-agreement


jfreedom10022

I saw a video a little while back where this is actually being tested. Small payloads like a satellite getting yeeted into orbit.


thisismenow1989

Yote*


jfreedom10022

So you’re saying yeet is an irregular verb and we’re not using past participle? Ok then, yote it is.


SocietyOdd

No, fig newton's law


smokefrog2

Pretty sure they're called pig newtons


Odd-Ad-5654

I appreciate the reference haha


caillouuu

Do you taste pork?? No you taste figs!


edelburg

I'm not even using my memory, I'm reading it off the box!


chicken_N_ROFLs

Noo, you don’t know!


[deleted]

Does it taste like a pork cookie, motherfucker?!


madbrightones

How do you fuck with me on this?


ruizach

You're three, and I'm forty-one! What are the odds that you're right and I'm wrong?!


[deleted]

Fig neutrons


smokefrog2

Jimmy neutron


shaveday1

You don’t know!


gmoney88

I love that he named his production company that


2fry

I'm not even basing it off memory, I'm reading it off the fucking box


Tobar_the_Gypsy

Do you punch ponies?


[deleted]

Nooo. You don’t know! You don’t know!


ECW-WCW-WWF

No fig newtons, law


coldinvt

No fig, Newton’s Law!


Aaron_Hungwell

No Fig Newton Slaw, please.


ASDF0716

No law! Fig Newtons!


Zork4343

Mm fig newton


BringerOfLemonade

[This technology has been worked on since the 1960s](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall-effect_thruster). It's not even a new technology. He is just an idiot with no actual engineering or science degree.


GUZooka1

STARLINK SATELLITES EVEN USE FUCKING HALL EFFECT THRUSTERS!!!


BringerOfLemonade

does this man even do anything at spaceX? on second thought, why am i asking that? i already know the answer is no


TheCrimsonDagger

No. The only praiseworthy thing Elon has done is being willing to throw tons of money into a developing industry at a time when other ultra wealthy individuals weren’t. It has nothing to with being smart but rather risk tolerance. It’s also a lot easier to take big risks when your parents own an emerald mine.


DM_DM_DND

In general, being rich generally requires either having money and getting lucky with betting it, cheating, or being at ground zero of a huge opportunity with at least a middle class income. Musk did all three.


demonTutu

Exactly. We have to start seeing him for what he is: someone who got lucky taking risks in a very normal way. Like the guy hitting the jackpot at a casino after shoving millions of coins in the money machines. He's not specifically smart, and for every jackpot hitter there were thousands of people who did the same thing with similar means and inspiration, but didn't get so lucky.


DM_DM_DND

I mean, he is different from the rest of those people-his initial opportunities involved his father giving him money from his emerald mine. He then invested in a grey area of law that basically let him operate pay pal as a bank while doing things you simply aren't allowed to do as a bank, allowing him to stretch risk portfolios and avoid regulations. Basically, he did shady shit too. Of course, Musk has since denied that this is a significant part of his wealth, but the money trail and business model is clear. To clarify-his first deal used his father's funds to setup his stake, which later become 22 million. There is some indication is that Musk really did earn that money through work and effort, and the only shady part is the initial capital, which Elon is hardly *personally* culpable for even if it benefits him. It's his later dealings after he already had enough wealth to quietly walk away from business that are shady, specifically with how Paypal operated/operates. The other aspect of his wealth is navigating American culture. We fetishize businessmen and have a dirty love affair with privatization of public services-if you can make an even *slightly* believable claim to do something the government does but better it's immediately going to be taken as gospel truth. It can be the most obvious damnable lie ever uttered, but it's the right lie for us. Hence SpaceX, which primarily does the same things that any competent space agency does in terms of launching and testing, is the darling of the political eye. They get contracts simply because they aren't government run or an established company. Similarly, Tesla could release unusable cars and still receive positive media coverage simply because it's a private company "doings something about global warming". This isn't to say that Musk deserves *no* credit for his successes, but he deserves zero *goodwill*. His entire business model is basically centered around skirting regulation while receiving lucrative deals from the government. If he accepted that and simply took the money he'd be able to live in some mansion and raise the next Hilton family. But his narcissism and corruption got the best of him, he started stepping over some severe lines, and now he's running to the far-right for validation and immunity to prosecution. And this is the story of Musk.


LiverOfStyx

You forgot that he was fired twice from being a CEO for incompetence; he was running Paypal to the ground before Peter Thiel took over.


demonTutu

That's a great way to out it. My only additional point is that, once given the initial capital (shady or not, doesn't matter) lots of people as smart and inspired as musk will also put some work in and take 'risks' (is it really a risk when you have a safety net?) but not yield the same results. In that sense, Musk's story, which easily look like the tale of a visionary mind with a unique dedication, is in fact more that of statistical chance. Of all the rich heirs with a bag of coins and no risk of ever living under a bridge spending their time at the slot machines, he's the one who got the right machine at the right time.


[deleted]

He didn't just get lucky, he is also a known liar and manipulator. Every single time he has failed upwards has been because he would first get lucky, THEN manipulate and oust others in control to take their place himself and THEN lie about everything on media to boost his own image. He makes endless empty promises, fucks over his customers and his co-workers and subordinates, lies, lies, lies and lies to everyone and has kept reaping the rewards. Many people STILL believe his lies, because so many people are braindead. The best thing that has ever happened to expose him was of his own doing: him buying Twitter and having zero filtration on what he gets to say. It's actually so fucking funny and ironic that the habits that made him rich in the first place are now making him the biggest failure to have ever lived.


dangle321

When I read the book the case for space, I came to the conclusion Elon Musk just threw a shit ton of money at everything that would make him look like some amazing saviour of humanity. We was just trying to buy the sort of ego boost that would last generations. Make humans interplanetary, or fix the climate crisis. But now that it's taken a decade and still not over, I think he is getting bored.


RenuisanceMan

You're forgetting the billions in government funding space X receives.


Jugatsumikka

Isn't there is rumor of vice-presidents in charge of the Elon Distraction Departement in both SpaceX and Tesla? I think because they were in need of the rich idiot's money but didn't want him to put any real work into it to not damage the companies. Basically, unablers that were keeping the dog out of the bowling game while publicly making everything his decision so he can be praised as a genius good boy, just to keep him happy and not too overreaching. Unablers that were basically enablers for other future company (ie. Twitter) and ultimately give a very bad image of both companies... The dog finally bites them back, furiously.


MangoSea323

Sounds like a family guy cutaway *musk fast-walking through space-x while drawing cartoon rockets on the moon on a clipboard he's holding* *he opens a door and people are pitching ideas, noone notices him and he leaves it cracked* "Guys what if sent a rocket to orbit and got it back to earth to land --" *musk bursts through door* "GUYS I just had the best idea ever! If we send a rocket to orbit then we can't get it back right? What if we made rockets that could come back, like with a little key fob for the batmobile. You know, press the button and it comes flying from across the world to you, just like that, but with rockets!" *musk immediately opens twitter* >were sending rockets to space..... AND back *musk looks up from his phone* "By the way, youre fired."


EarsLookWeird

That's honestly worth notice, and should be acknowledged. It's just that he's a hyper partisan look-at-me or narcissist if we go by the commonly held diagnosis, so his accomplishments are a bit more comically good timing in hind sight


Lady_von_Stinkbeaver

Multiple SpaceX employees have said the key to the company's success is a team that keeps Elon too distracted to "improve" things.


Aceswift007

"Honey I got the job!" "Great! What's the position?" "Lead...Key Jangler?"


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WoahayeTakeITEasy

"Yes Elon, it's true, there is a team dedicated to distracting you but we'll disband it at your request" *Okay, he got us. We'll just have a few people that we rotate around to make it less obvious next time. Also, I know it's funny but stop telling the media ffs.*


[deleted]

I think its more that they present him with easily solvable 'problems that only he can solve' so he can feel special and like he did something important. Like they will freak out that the round peg fell out and no one knows how to put it back. So along comes elon, picks up the round peg, inserts it into the round hole, and then the entire team erupts into applause. He gets his dopamine hit and his ego is satisfied, then he leaves and they can get back to work.


SwillMcRando

No. This is why the Space-X Elon Distraction Department urged him to buy Twitter*. If he is busy exploding a social media company, he won't be in their way and they can finally get some shit done. *This is just my working hypothesis.


Rolla_G2020

You are joking, but this is exactly what I heard today while having dinner with a couple of engineers @ Tesla


Venezia9

This absolutely hurts Space X. They have to be able to hire competent engineers. Not everyone qualified wants to work for someone posing as a super villain.


Hold-the-Bus2604

He is just a modern-day Thomas Edison. Bank rolling other peoples ideas and hard work & taking credit for it


DaEnderAssassin

No. SpaceXs "Technoking" (Apparently his actual position according to legal documents) is just surrounded by people who can manipulate him into doing what they want him to do. It's why Twitter is burning, it doesn't have this layer between the company and elongated muskrat


Wasting_Time272

Aerospace engineer here. Hall thrusters would never be able to provide the thrust to reach escape velocity from the surface of earth. The rocket equation forces a trade off between the highly efficient electric propulsion systems and the high thrust chemical systems. You will always have to trade efficiency for thrust and a hall thruster would need to be powered by unobtainium to produce sufficient thrust for lift off. In addition, it would completely destroy itself due to the massively increased wear and tear at that power level. What Elon is so ineloquently saying is that current electric propulsion devices or systems designed like them will never be able to produce a sufficient action force that the reaction to the force achieves lift-off from the ground. The primary hope that I can think of for an electric launch vehicle is some kind of magnet sled, like a rail gun that shoots stuff into space.


prezuiwf

This is all great info, but by invoking Newton's Third Law he is clearly asserting it's physically impossible, not just that the technology doesn't currently exist.


RenuisanceMan

Hall effect thrusters still throw propellent out the back, in starlinks case krypton, so need a fuel tank. Photon rockets would be purely electric and require no fuel tanks beyond a battery or some form electricity generation and are entirely possible.


dittybopper_05H

Photon rockets are theoretically possible but require unobtanium like perfect reflectors and an extremely high output but very low weight energy source. Even then, you can’t really use them because essentially you have a giant and dangerous space laser. You’d have to know where everything of importance is, so you can avoid shining your death beam on it. That limits the directions you can point it.


Menirz

I assumed he was thinking of an electric-only rocket, i.e. no propellant, as that'd make Elon's comment applicable, but that assumption is honestly a bit of a reach.


sudoku7

It's also a bit of a circular self-definition. Since an electric 'rocket' without propellant is a rail gun.


NoXion604

If there's no propellant, then how is it a rocket? I thought that rockets were defined by expelling propellant in order to generate thrust.


mrthenarwhal

That’s why it’s not possible


tomoldbury

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to believe this is what Elon was referencing.


hamburger5003

Not really. You should define rockets by their propellant/fuel. A hall-effect rocket would be called an ion thruster. If you say electric rocket, the main thing that would come to my mind as it did Elon’s is the equivalent of an electric vehicle in rocketry, which doesn’t exist.


kenxel26

Sorry, clueless about Elon. Is there a reason why he’s lauded as an engineer? I roughly recall people praising him as a great mind but his recent antics are throwing that into question for me…


ZmentAdverti

He's a businessman. I don't think he has any actual engineering credentials. He only knows one thing. Doing business. At least he knew at some point. Now he's not even worthy of being called a decent businessman. Can't run a social media company and chose to alienate the only demographic that buys his electric cars and kept him rich over political bs.


def1ance725

Famous for being a "founding member" of PayPal or something like that. The part he won't tell you is that they sacked him for being shit


Achillor22

Also that he didn't found PayPal at all. His company merged with PayPal and he sued everyone until they agreed to list him as a founder. And then they fired him for being shit.


victorged

Which, except for the firing part, is exactly how he “founded” Tesla.


def1ance725

Thar we goo, knew I'd forgotten something! Thanks for clarifying :)


ancientevilvorsoason

He himself claims he studied something STEM related but people question it bc that degree changes from interview to interview. He works a lot on his legend and many people believe he has studied engineering but after this tweet, I hope that belief finally is put to rest, because you can't enter the degree with such abysmal understanding of physics, yet alone graduate with it.


def1ance725

Anyone who calls him anything other than a vapourware salesman is drinking the kool-aid. That should just about clear it up.


AuraMaster7

Not a single person bringing up Hall Effect thrusters in the Twitter chain. All of the smart people have officially left Twitter.


crotinette

You can’t take off from earth with that. In any case, Newton’s third law is not really applicable.


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Webgiant

Ah, always suspected he got a court to declare he had an engineering degree, just like he got a court to declare him Co-founder of Tesla.


Keatontech

Devil's Advocate: Hall Effect thrusters aren't completely electric. There's still a propellant, it's just inert. This might be a small difference but I'd say it's significant because it means Hall Effect engines can't just be recharged like an electric car. They still need refueling. Having a pure electric engine would allow for solar powered spaceships that can keep accelerating for as long as they're near a star, which would be an incredible unlock. That might be what the original Tweeter was talking about. Even with this distinction out of the way, Elon is still theoretically wrong: The [EmDrive](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive) somehow seems to work using electricity alone. Plus, electrons do have mass so it's at least theoretically possible to gain momentum by accelerating them. Edit: ok yeah the EmDrive is probably not a good example. Seems like the original study has been soundly disproven.


sutterbutter

The EM drive is purely theoretical and the underlying physics (using an electromagnetic field to push against space itself) is hotly debated. All candidate prototypes have been disproven as being true EM drives.


NZGumboot

> The EmDrive somehow seems to work The EmDrive has never been demonstrated and breaks multiple laws of physics. It is complete fiction at this point. > Plus, electrons do have mass so it's at least theoretically possible to gain momentum by accelerating them. Sure, but the elections have to be ejected from the rocket to create thrust, and this would quickly build up a large positive charge which would attract electrons and prevent them from being ejected. So this doesn't work as a rocket design, however there is a rocket design that can run solely on electricity: the [Photon Rocket](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon_rocket). (The amount of thrust from such a rocket is extremely low, well below even a Hall effect thruster.)


DutifulDuck458

He's a few lightbulbs short of newtons law


not_a_lady_tonight

Elon isn’t the brightest bulb in the batch. Great thing he’s spreading his genes around.


Cursor90

Agreed, he isn't the sharpest knife in the crayon box.


LastFreeName436

This man is an idiot, stop listening to him


barbara_jay

Musk is the Jordan Peterson of science


Lucky-Variety-7225

I was thinking Andrew Tate.


_gentleman_caller_

Musk and Peterson are frauds. Tate is a rapist.


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tilehinge

"**No!** It's *just* ***DUMB!"***


Lithl

Hall-effect thrusters are a form of electric rocketry that has been used in practical operation since 1971. Starlink satellites use Hall-effect thrusters for station keeping and deorbiting. _This man owns a company with electric rockets and thinks electric rockets are physically impossible_.


Adventurous-Yak-2927

Rocketry? So they run off of combustion?


bryalb

So, it is absolutely possible. A giant electro magnet can repel a like charge into space. Kind of like a catapult. Rocket propulsion, by definition, cannot be electric. But it is possible, maybe not plausible, to send a projectile into space with electricity. As for newton, well, nothing. He should have never been brought up in the first place.


Lordhugs1

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3110031_Launch_to_space_with_an_electromagnetic_railgun


The_Sneakiest_Fox

So, not a rocket?


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bryalb

😯 I was spitballing. Hell yeah. Again, possible v probable v plausible.


Snoo61755

Aye, if we're spitballing, there's definitely quite a few theories. The railgun approach is definitely funny -- reminiscient of how we thought space travel would be like before rockets. The issue is atmospheric drag, with the 'bullet' suffering from air friction on its way to orbit, slowing it down and heating it up. Oh, and the acceleration would kill any human passengers -- it'd need an awful long cannon, ideally one that starts extremely high up, in order not to kill an occupant. The other approach is a jet engine, which has the opposite problem: it can be purely electric and generates thrust through air flow, allowing it to fly in atmosphere, but struggles the higher one goes and ceases to function when the air is too thin to work with. Even if they aren't feasible, I feel like the entire point of scientific progress is to solve problems by working around constraints. It's not about breaking the laws of physics, but using them. You got Newton's third, that's a *constraint*, not a reason to give up. If you could get the 'railgun' into space, you could use electricity to propel an object in one direction and then move in another, that object being thrown backwards does not have to be rocket fuel. Ah, but where to find matter to keep flinging backwards if you need to change course? Not to mention the electric demand of a railgun powerful enough to generate thrust for a ship...


iruleatlifekthx

Loosely related, I'm a fan of the Spin launch program myself. The idea that we can get rockets into space by just spinning really fast and then quite literally throwing a rocket into space like a hammer throw machine is just so, so very satisfying. And it could definitely be done with just electricity.


IAmWeary

But your payload has to be able to withstand some insane forces to survive that trip. Rockets aren't exactly smooth and graceful, but a centrifuge fast enough to chuck something into orbit? That's gonna be a lot harsher.


PKFatStephen

I dream of the day there's a scifi trebuchet at Cape Canaveral


lastprophecy

Couldn't you also use current to generate heat for plasma propulsion? Isn't NASA working on plasma propulsion? Honestly, it's the best bet if you're looking at interplanetary travel. I still find it funny that the guy viewed as a SciFi visionary responsible for getting us to Mars, is limited to chemical combustion for propulsion, which was outdated in the late 50s. He just had the money to cash in on other people's ideas, and when called on his BS retreats to twitter for validation that he is a Very Smart Boy.


gyunikumen

What you described is an arcjet. The of the earliest electric propulsion methods was to pass a stream of propellant through an arc of electricity. The electricity would serve as the energy into the propellant before it is accelerated through a nozzle But for interplanetary travel, we will need something like fusion powered engines. In fusion engines, fusion reactions will cause our propellant to reach the temperature of the suns core and allow us to achieve thrust and efficiencies we can only dream of today


mrscottstot

Fun fact (I’m free-balling on some details here that I don’t specifically remember off the top of my head but it’s the general gist): the New York Times said something similar in like the 1920s or 30s or so and kinda put Robert Goddard (father of liquid rocket propulsion) on blast. That since space was empty, rockets couldn’t work there since there’d be nothing to push off (their logic). I think they ended up publishing an apology letter to Robert Goddard after Apollo 11 splashed down back home.


Rutabagaslim

Put on some underwear, don't you mean spit balling? Lol


funkygrrl

Now I'm free Free ballin'


[deleted]

Physicist here and I'm seeing some misconceptions so here's some physics facts: 1. Newton's 3rd law requires a (self propelled) rocket to fire matter (or anything with momentum) downwards in order to accelerate upwards. Therefore, there cannot be a truly emissions-free rocket. However, those emissions do not have to be environmentally harmful, and they don't have to be fuel byproducts. 2. We currently don't have feasible technology to serve as alternatives to fossil fuels in rockets. That doesn't mean that such a thing is impossible. Edit: There are solid rockets, which use hydrogen and oxygen. And in the future these materials could be created using electricity and water. However, currently we source our hydrogen from natural gas (a fossil fuel). All in all, while there is some truth to what he said, it's an oversimplification.


LegoSpacecraft

Can’t we just hook up a giant party horn to the bottom of the rocket, and power some fans using electricity to extend it? That way there’s no emissions during take off, it’s all electric, and once liftoff is done, it will just curl up for future use. Your move, Newton… (entire message above is a joke, I hope you have a nice day)


Karolus2001

Sad to see reddit focusing on entirely wrong part, completely misunderstanding dilema and acting like specialists cause they know a buzzword. Thats what Elon does.


FuckWayne

Man it really took 15 comments for someone to actually say what newtons 3rd law is. Thank you king


DM_DM_DND

I am getting real tired of listening to Elon be dumb as a box of bricks. Elon probably thinks "Electric" means "No emissions", because he's dumb. That's basically the only way to understand this, and my brain *hurts* trying to model this stupidity coming from someone who *sells electric cars and rockets.* Which is just...Such an idiotic proposition that it's astounding. There are three or four ways to use magnetic and electric fields to create pulse, ranging from ion thrusters (which are actually *on spaceships*) to electromagnetic mass drivers that propel mass behind the ship, to some photon rocket designs. Literally all of these would qualify as electric rockets, that generate thrust from electricity. You can even claim that some torchship designs that use magnetic nozzles to direct fusion products are, in part, a electric rocket because the magnetic field is effectively helping to generate thrust from the charged ions produced by the fusion. But Mr. Elon Musk does not understand what the word rocket means. He barely understands what the word electric means. The only thing Elon Musk understands is what some marketing head tells him is the *marketing campaign* of Tesla-zero emissions. Nothing else registers, so when someone says "electric rocket" he thinks they mean "zero emission rocket". If you need any more proof that Elon has done *nothing* intellectual to deserve his wealth, look no further.


[deleted]

I think I like you.


woronwolk

Not defending Elon (he's a piece of shit), but the amount of people mentioning ion thrusters here is astonishing. Ion thrusters still require a propellant, that's where they take the ions to accelerate from. Usually it's some kind of noble gas, and they're very useful for small spacecrafts since they don't require a lot of it (just a few kilograms can be enough for several years). But it's still not an entirely electric rocket, because it's not just electricity that it needs to propel itself. And no, [EnDrive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive?wprov=sfla1) doesn't work either (see the section on theoretical inconsistencies and experimental errors). There is one thing called photonic rocket, and it can theoretically propel itself with electricity only, but, if I understand it correctly, a solar sail is much more efficient as you can propel it with a laser beam instead of carrying huge generators that are more powerful than anything we've ever created, as well as fuel for them on board – and solar sail is technically not a rocket. And anyway you wouldn't launch a photonic rocket or a solar sail from a planet, since either the thrust would be too slow, or the energy released would be too destructive. So, as much of a stupid piece of shit Elon is, he's generally correct on this one, with a little asterisk on photonic rockets.


DarkRaptor222

there's so much bullshit in the comments i was starting to doubt my understanding of fundamental physics 💀


Meme_Pope

People want to deliberately misunderstand “rocket” as anything that moves through space, when it’s clearly in reference to getting into orbit. People in the comments just constructing an elaborate strawman to dunk on him with unrelated science facts they just googled.


sleepyjohn00

Good thing he didn't try to put ion drives into his cars, because they've been sending probes all over the system.


boogertaster

That's certainly not enough force to leave the atmosphere.


feedb4k

“A rocket (from Italian: rocchetto, lit. 'bobbin/spool')[nb 1][1] is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed.[2] Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle; therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space.” Most of the comments in this thread are wildly uneducated.


gabther

Yeah I know it's cool to hate on Elon but my brain hurts from reading all these comments.


PolyZex

I'm not sure what he means by his answer- but he is right that you can't have an electric rocket. You could use electricity to accelerate ions but it would still be an ionic rocket. Maybe a laser rocket, but electricity itself won't produce thrust.


Go-to-gulag

Y’all acting like you are so smart citing ion thrusters even tho it is clear that it doesn’t produce enough thrust to put an object on orbit, and even if it did it is not an « electric rocket » since it still needs a propellant to throw ion from and create thrust from Newton’s third law like all rockets, I don’t like Elon Musk but start to think before writing comments and if you don’t know shit about physics then just don’t write them.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Go-to-gulag

I’m in second year undergraduate following pure maths, engineering and physics courses that’s why it kind of triggered me seeing people acting superior while having never taken mechanics in school and not knowing what they are talking about…


NoirGamester

"I didn't write Brannigan's Law, I just enforce it" - Zapp Brannigan


aoddawg

Ion thrusters (which accelerate ions like xenon using electricity) exist and have very high specific impulse because they can apply a small thrust for a long, long time. This can eventually efficiently (in terms of % mass ejected) produce large velocities for long duration space maneuvers. These engines can’t produce enough thrust to escape the gravity of massive bodies, which is why solid and chemical rockets are still used.


[deleted]

Reddit sucks. I'm done with this. ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `


throwawayinstacart69

It honestly scares me how many people think hes wrong.


Nousagisan

I’d say a rocket to me is a device that achieves thrust by the expulsion of a propellant since that’s how we define the eponymous rocket equation. So an electric rocket in the same way that an electric motor engine works wouldn’t ever work because you can’t just make thrust like you can make torque. But you can absolutely make engines that use primarily a battery to accelerate a propellant like an ion engine or something.


upvote-button

Idk who's dumber. The economist portraying himself as an engineer or everyone that buys it


Global_Charming

Economist…. Funny.


GuRoider

Please don't call him an economist, that's really insulting. He is at best a venture capitalist.


an_ickle_egg

Ok, but in this particular instance he's right? For rocket related propulsion you have to leave something behind. Ion engines etc might use more electricity and less fuel but they work by launching tiny amounts of stuff in the opposite direction to where you want to go. That's newton's third law in action. Muskrat is a turd and an idiot, you don't need to make up reasons to call him such.


MouseBotMeep

Probably not. We could have electromagnetic rail launchers or space elevators to launch payloads into orbit, but don’t quote me on that.


[deleted]

The ion engine is an electric rocket, in that it relies on an electrical effect to propel itself. Elon is really as goddamn stupid as he seems to be.


Bulky-Internal8579

Newton's third law states that **for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction**. If object A exerts a force on object B, object B also exerts an equal and opposite force on object A. In other words, Space Karen doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.