Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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

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


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Saturday January 12 2019, @06:09PM (1 child)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 12 2019, @06:09PM (#785604) Journal

    This was somewhat my initial thought also. The sideways wheels look like bumpers you might use going down the tunnel.
     
    Compressed gas to lift also seems crazy, but if you could manage just a very thin air cushion somehow in a highly controlled tunnel environment. Meh, still probably crazy sauce.
     
    I wonder if he just said - 'do something like this picture' to a bunch of his engineers and got back something like "yes sir, we can do something like that" and stopped listening before the "But....."

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:46PM (#785965)

    i wonder if he's just trying to reduce weight/gravity a little bit so that you get more benefit from the thrust that's already being spent. and yes, those wheels have to do with the tunnel.