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Elon Musk: New Tesla Roadster will use Thrusters to Float Above the Ground

posted by martyb on Saturday January 12 2019, @09:42AM   
from the how-is-Moller's-Skycar-doing? dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Elon Musk has a knack for tweeting out some real eyebrow-raisers. On Wednesday afternoon, he delivered, once again:

The new Roadster will actually do something like this https://t.co/fIsTAYa4x8

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 9, 2019

So, is Musk just joking around?

“I’m not,” Musk replied on Twitter TWTR, -0.66% to the delight of his fan base. “Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultrahigh pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats.”

Can't help but think Musk is full of crap here - even with the "removal of the rear seats" idea, I doubt that a tank of that size using cold gas only could hover a car for more than a handful of seconds.

Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-new-tesla-roadster-will-use-thrusters-to-float-above-the-ground-2019-01-10

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Original Submission

• lifting is energy intensive lifting is energy intensive (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday January 12 2019, @02:12PM (2 children)

  by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday January 12 2019, @02:12PM (#785508) Journal

  Real hovercraft use gobs of energy to maintain an air cushion under the vehicle. I just can't see an air jet system being at all practical. Airplanes do better, but still take lots of energy.

  Balloons and magnetic levitation are about the only ways to get off the ground cheap, and the latter can be an energy burner anyway, having to move fast and use lots of energy to overcome aerodynamic drag for the levitation part of the system to work efficiently, while the former can't move fast. There's also ground effect vehicles. Anti-grav might be possible but take impractically huge amounts of energy.

  What the heck is Musk thinking?

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• Re:lifting is energy intensive (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @03:43PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @03:43PM (#785542)

  He is breaking the conditioning by preparing the public for anti-grav. But the CIA will kill him for it.

  Parent

• Re:lifting is energy intensive (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:11PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:11PM (#785555)

  How does he plan to deal with all the eels?

  Parent