Article Image

IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

This Is The Rocket That Could Save Humanity

• http://www.popsci.com, By Samantha Cole

Take a long, loving gaze into the fiery plume of a rocket that could someday save humanity. It's the kind of beautiful fireball you could get lost in.

That's what a billionaire tech mogul might reflect on while basking in the warm glow of 310 metric tons of thrust blasted forth from the Raptor rocket engine, before hitting "send tweet:"

As details on the project slowly come together, it's mind-blowing to think that someday humans could ride this thing around our solar system. Imagine this engine, combined with a cluster of other engines just like it, strapped to a vessel that'll carry humans to Mars and beyond in the coming decades, as part of the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System.

This was Raptor's first firing test, after getting cozy in MacGregor, Texas last month. "Production Raptor goal is specific impulse of 382 seconds and thrust of 3 MN (~310 metric tons) at 300 bar," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted, adding that its chamber pressure is almost three times that of the Merlin engines, which power the SpaceX Falcon 9 and upcoming Falcon Heavy rockets.


PurePatriot