Slashdot Mirror
Elon Musk Explains Why He's Building 'Starship' Out of Stainless Steel (popularmechanics.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader darkwing_bmf writes: In an exclusive interview with Popular Mechanics, SpaceX founder Elon Musk explains why stainless steel is the best material to build rocket ships, beating carbon fiber in cost, durability and even weight.
"As far as we know, this marks the first time the material has been used in spacecraft construction since some early, ill-fated attempts during the Atlas program in the late 1950s," reports Popular Mechanics.
"It took me quite a bit of effort to convince the team to go in this direction..." Musk tells them. But among the other benefits "It has a high melting point. Much higher than aluminum, and although carbon fiber doesn't melt, the resin gets destroyed at a certain temperature... But steel, you can do 1500, 1600 degrees Fahrenheit."
"As far as we know, this marks the first time the material has been used in spacecraft construction since some early, ill-fated attempts during the Atlas program in the late 1950s," reports Popular Mechanics.
"It took me quite a bit of effort to convince the team to go in this direction..." Musk tells them. But among the other benefits "It has a high melting point. Much higher than aluminum, and although carbon fiber doesn't melt, the resin gets destroyed at a certain temperature... But steel, you can do 1500, 1600 degrees Fahrenheit."
How on earth do you discount the success of Tesla and SpaceX? Musk is obviously far more than just a byproduct of PayPal.
Musk may not be the smartest guy in the room but he has a very solid track record of saying his companies are going to do something people consider outside the envelope, and not just making it work but making it work really well.
It sure seems like with the success that SpaceX has had, anyone discounting what Musk has to say about how rockets should be built and operated, is very probably either a jerk or an idiot. In either case they are even more probably wrong.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think you're confusing the companies. Tesla is not SpaceX. Nor vice versa.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
You miss hey!'s point.... NONE of these fuckers started seriously caring about making electric cars until Tesla came on the scene. Them most of them banded together against him to try to legislate him out of business. Then finally when Tesla actually started selling cars and it turned out they were pretty decent, got the shit scared out of them and started looking into making their own cars. Even if Tesla is a total failure, Must has brought about the age of the electric car.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.