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.
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Saturday January 12 2019, @06:09PM (1 child)
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....."
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:46PM
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.