Elon Musk: SpaceX founder requests help over ‘biggest challenge’ with new rocket – Express.co.uk

Last week, Elon Musk unveiled his shiny new rocket, the Starship MK1, intended to help fulfil his goal of a permanent settlement on Mars. The spacecraft will be a fully reusable vehicle designed for long-duration cargo and passenger carrying. After his presentation on the new advancements, the 48-year-old spoke to Tim Dodd, presenter of YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut, where he discussed SpaceX’s secret to success.Mr Dodd then asked why the team chose not to use aerospike, a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes, while using 25 to 30 percent less fuel.However, Musk had a surprising response.He said last week: “I’ve internally asked this question many times, like, ‘guys shouldn’t we maybe use an aerospike?’“The challenge is when you have a rocket engine you’re trying to shoot things out as fast as possible in a straight line.Elon Musk discussed SpaceX’s Starship (Image: GETTY)Musk spoke to Tim Dodd (Image: YOUTUBE) If somebody can show that we are wrong, that would be greatElon Musk“So you have your combustion efficiency and what percentage of max theoretical combustion you are and then what your nozzle efficiency is, which is really are you straightening the flow, shooting the molecules out in a straight line, so you go into the other direction.“With a traditional combustion chamber, you can get to very high combustion efficiency, cause the molecules are bouncing around have got time to combine and do their thing.“Then when you sort of choke it through the throat, it gives them more opportunity to combine.”However, Musk admitted he was up for a change and challenged someone to prove him wrong.He added: “We think we can probably get to 98.5, hopefully, 99 percent of theoretical combustion efficiency because of full flow staged combustion.JUST IN: Astronomers warn of colossal galaxy explosion heading towards EarthHow an aerospike engine works (Image: WIKI)“If somebody can show that we are wrong, that would be great. “If someone can say ‘there is a way to make your design better,’ this is a gift.“The worst thing would be to use a dumb design and stick with it, that would be insane.”Musk claimed he would happily scrap the design in favour of an aerospike if someone proved him wrong.He continued: “I would love it if somebody could show how an aerospike is a smart move.An example of an aerospike engine (Image: GETTY)Starship will be used for long distance travel (Image: WIKI)“In which case, we will just do an aerospike.“Maybe the reason they haven’t been used is not valid, because there has also been a methane orbital engine.“So there has been neither a full-flow staged combustion engine that has seen the flight, nor has there been a methane engine that has seen flight. certainly in a rocket scenario.“I’m very confident that CH4 is the right fuel, but maybe aerospike is right, but you have to show that your combustion efficiency is not affected.”Musk previously explained how this theory has been the key to SpaceX’s success. He said: “I think I’ve learned a lot of lessons about how to make things go fast.“And then I’ve propagated those lessons to the SpaceX team and there’s just like an incredibly talented hardworking team at SpaceX.“In fact, at times, I think maybe there are too many talented people at SpaceX, we have too many talented people, we’re cornering the market.“But there’s this very talented group that works super hard and they have to take the general approach of, if something is taking too long, the design is wrong.“Therefore, the design must be modified to accelerate progress.”