Just when you thought it was safe to stop thinking about Elon Musk for a Clarence Day or two , the billionaire - cut - Good Shepherd of the human race has bring out a young rocket locomotive engine that may one daytime take people to Mars .
In a tweet overnight , Musk enounce SpaceX has successfully trial run - fired this railway locomotive , hollo Raptor , yesterday at their test site in McGregor , Texas . He posted a match of image too , one labeled “ mach rhombus ” ( also called shock diamonds ) , which refers to the form in the ultrasonic exhaust plume of a rocket engine .
This test was a scaled - down adaptation of the last Raptor design , but it is the first exam ( that we live of anyway ) , so it ’s a pretty cock-a-hoop deal .
Currently on its Falcon 9 rockets , SpaceX uses an locomotive called Merlin . Developed by SpaceX ’s rocket salad technologist Tom Mueller , this engine has been used on all launches from the first Falcon 1 to the Falcon 9 today , help oneself SpaceX launch commercial-grade satellites and delegation to the International Space Station ( ISS ) .
SpaceX , though , finally wants to send cargo and humansto Mars , and to do that it needs a bigger and better locomotive engine .
Step ahead Raptor . Although we do n’t know specific details about the engine yet , Musk did give away a few titbit , suggest that the engine was three times as sinewy as Merlin . He also suggested the size of it of the roquette ’s schnozzle would be about 4.3 beat ( 14 feet ) astray , making it bigger than the Saturn V ’s F-1 engines used to take humans to the Moon , with about half the thrusting .
And unlike Merlin , which use kerosene and liquid O , Raptor will be power by liquid methane and limpid oxygen – leading some to suggest it could be refueled by methane on Mars .
When this engine might be used alternatively of Merlin , and for what launch , is unclear at the moment .
But the timing is noted , because tomorrow Elon Musk is move to beunveiling his planto colonise the Solar System . He ’s expected to reveal item of hisInterplanetary Transport System(ITS ) at the International Astronautical Congress ( IAC ) 2016 in Mexico . This will bestreamed live onlinestarting at 2.30pm EDT ( 7.30pm BST ) .
On Twitter , Musk say he would also reveal more contingent about the Raptor railway locomotive in his talk – another reason to be excited . Do n’t miss it .
