Musk praises “amazing” designs of Russian rocket engines (but insists on hard part production)

Published:

4 ago 2021 19:27 GMT

The founder of SpaceX noted that the hardest thing in building a rocket engine is to get rid of the misconception of its design.

Elon Musk turns out to be a tour guide in a new video Daily astronaut, A space travel news service showing the SpaceX Starbase factory in Texas, USA.

The founder of the space company talked about the preparations needed to launch the giant starship rocket on his first orbital test flight. Currently, SpaceX experts are working to build a Super Heavy Thruster on StarBase, with 29 Raptor engines installed.

During the interview, Musk noted that the hardest thing about building a rocket engine is wanting to dispel the misconception that it is its design. In fact, Now the biggest challenge is production itself Reducing the cost of engines and this process, according to the entrepreneur.

“If we can reduce the cost of sending a ton of propulsion into orbit, humanity will become a species that lives on many planets,” said the director of SpaceX and Tesla.

In that regard, Musk noted the impact of Russian rocket engine designs on the development of liquid oxygen and methane raptor engines. While acknowledging that Russian engineers have developed hundreds of machine designs, the millionaire reiterated that the design area is not yet very difficult.

“I spend a lot of time studying the design of Russian rocket engines. There are some wonderful Russian engine designs that have been producing liquid-propelled rocket engines for a long time and They have created hundreds of different designsSaid the founder of SpaceX.

In this regard, Musk believes that no significant improvements have been made in the Raptor engine compared to what Russian engineers have already done.

“Our engine is more compact than before and has full gas of combustion components. But these are relatively small improvements over what the Russians have already done,” the businessman said.

In conclusion, the Chancellor reiterated the importance of reducing the cost of machine production, and stated that his goal was to reduce this amount for Raptor. $ 1,000 per ton of impulse.