Elon Musk Debunks Electric Space Rockets after Simpsons Episode

Elon Musk appeared in last night’s episode of the Simpsons, an episode full of future and current concepts such as self-driving cards, violin playing quadcopters, self-packing luggage and a working hyperloop.

Elon Musk was treated well in the episodes, as guest stars always are. There is some witty banter at his expense, but always mocking something good – and in good humour. At the end of the episode, he jets off in his Dragon spacecraft and Lisa points out that “for a man who likes electric cards, he sure burns a lot of rocket fuel”.

Before this could get out of hand in any way, Elon Musk used his twitter account to debunk electrical rockets. They are simply not possible. The “reason is Newton’s Third Law. In vacuum, there is nothing to “push” against. You must react against ejected mass … Ion thrusters are great, but have extremely tiny force (photon thruster even less). Must have more thrust than weight or you don’t go up.”

If u saw @TheSimpsons and wonder why @SpaceX doesn't use an electric rocket to reach orbit, it is cuz that is impossible

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015

He also notes that another futuristic trope for getting off the planet, the space elevator, needs a lot more research in raw materials before it will be a possible.

And pls don't ask me about space elevators until someone at least builds a carbon nanotube structure longer than a footbridge

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015

So both space elevators and electric rockets will stay a thing of Hollywood’s for now. Elon Musk had one more things to say, that railgun launches wouldn’t work either – at least if your plan is to not explode.

Final one: anything launched by a railgun (if you could ever reach ~ Mach 27) would explode upon exiting the barrel in our dense atmosphere

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015

Thanks to TheVerge for providing us with this information