Right Now on NASA TV -- SpaceX 'Dragon' Spacecraft Approached the ISS

reply to post by LifeInDeath


I'm sure there are other propulsion Technic besides matter/antimatter reaction, nuclear propulsion could be improved and others.

Originally posted by YodleAjax
reply to post by LifeInDeath

 

I'm sure there are other propulsion Technic besides matter/antimatter reaction, nuclear propulsion could be improved and others.

Nuclear reactions aren't efficient enough to produce the kind of energy needed for this level of propulsion. Nuclear fission will only convert about 4% of the fuel into energy, nuclear fusion will give you maybe 12% efficiency. Electron/Positron annihilation can give you anywhere from 25% to 100% efficiency from your fuel, and how much fuel one has to carry for the journey is very important because this will constitute the bulk of the weight of the ship that the engines will have to push. At 4% and 12% efficiency, that sort of trip just won't be possible.

Elon Musk is quite the short stop.

Have you read his bio? I think his hero was Tony Stark when he was a kid.

Self made billionaire, took Paypal and made it worth over a billion, started Tesla Motors, electric cars, company worth 1 billion, SpaceX where he is now doing what NASA was unable to do, etc.

Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born inventor, engineer and entrepreneur best known for co-founding SpaceX, Tesla Motors and X.com, which later became Paypal. He is currently the CEO and Chief Designer of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity. While at those companies, Musk co-designed the first viable electric car of the modern era[5], the Tesla Roadster, a private successor to the Space Shuttle, Falcon 9, and the world's largest Internet payment system, PayPal.

en.wikipedia.org...

Him and Richard Branson should play golf on that Russian guys yacht.

Elon. How you comin' with those robots?