Elon Musk FINALLY Admits Nuclear Is The Only Answer

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musk enjoys defending technologies that we do  not even know are technically feasible such as   electrical propulsion for aircraft neuron  microchip interfaces to expand The Power   Of Consciousness and nuclear fusion which would  be simple to implement if the reactor were made   larger and recently he finally admits that  a nuclear thermal rocket is the only answer   to reach Titan in a span of less than two years  compared to chemical propulsions that will take   for nearly seven years but how will SpaceX make  this happen let's find out in this episode hello   everyone welcome back to Elon Musk Evolution  where we bring you the most recent news about   Elon Musk and his multi-billion dollar companies  space news and the latest science and technology   but before we begin make sure you subscribe to  our Channel and click the Bell icon so you don't   miss any of our amazing videos is America prepared  for another rocket disaster the follow-up flight   of Starship which will use an enhanced version of  booster 9 and a startling collaboration with ship   25 is scheduled to take place in a few months  while the memory of the first launch is still   fresh the subsequent test will primarily focus on  the first stage flight with the booster despite   the latter lacking improvements already utilized  on sibling ships at the production facility with   the upgrades to the launch pad expected to be  finished in a month and an additional month of   test before the next test flight Elon Musk  noted that ship 25 is already at the launch   site and waiting for a six engine static fire test  after more than a month of pad flow that included   multiple rollbacks for additional adjustments  booster 7 and ship 24 finally took to the air   even with the few months of pad modifications  needed after booster 7 dug a hole and ignited   a rock tornado during its launch the following  campaign will be finished in a timely manner   with the rapidly and entirely reusable tag bearing  the objective of launching every day from the same   pad in future years the decrease of the pad  flow will be an overall concept for Starship   SpaceX has installed a water-cooled steel  plate and Deluge system under the orbital   launch mount in the interim in an effort to  prevent the flying concrete of the first launch   prior to the steel plates being carried in around  a month according to musk preparation for its   installation has been proceeding at the launch  site in recent weeks a month of pad testing would   follow after the repairs to the pad are finished  musk said in a Twitter update that highlighted   spacex's highlights video of the test flight that  time frame was given a few possible cryoproofing   and static fire tests the integration of the  ship 25's entire stack tests with the changes   at the pad and the integration of the booster  9 on the olm are all included in that testing   the six engine static fire test for ship 25  will be performed at the sub-orbital launch   site once it has completed cryoproofing at the  masses test facility following musk's earlier   statement that a decision has not yet been made  during his last Twitter space it has now been   announced that the latter will fly with booster 9.  we haven't made a final Choice regarding the ship   intimating that the next flight would be focused  on re-entry with the ship after the main goals of   booster 9's first stage Mission musk remarked  a few weeks ago that's why I was referring to   booster 9 but I was somewhat I did not say the  ship number as a result I believe we should add   a ship that offers us that capability however we  haven't decided on the precise ship number yet   the emphasis on ship performance during re-entry  seems to hint toward using ship 28 or ship 29.   these two which had the most recent thermal  protection system installations and like booster   9 and later electric thrust vector control  systems the decision to use ship 25 suggests   that the test flight's first stage will be used to  further several objectives which is obviously the   case a significant improvement over the first test  flight would be a first stage Ascent that avoided   significant pad damage and continued through  staging with the ship as the testing regime   progresses towards the ultimate aim of operational  missions SpaceX May then switch to the newer ships   for subsequent flights booster pieces up to B15  and ship portions up to s34 have been observed at   the manufacturing facility proving that SpaceX  has enough of vehicles ready to go recently   booster 10 was relocated to the Rocket Garden  perhaps only to clear out room in the giant Bay   in order to accommodate this production  speed SpaceX is rearranging the production   site demolishing outdated structures and getting  ready to expand High Bay capacity the recently   delivered LR 11000 crane is expected to assist in  building a new Bay next to the megaport following   the arrival from Roberts Road the latter is  spacex's production facility at the Kennedy   Space Center which has yet to start assembling  but is intended to have its own gigantic Bay   prior to delivering vehicles to KSC  SpaceX will probably concentrate on   production at Starbase as musk previously  announced will be the initial flow path   the wind break which was dismantled on Sunday to  make room for new facilities to be developed in   the region was an old structure that was used to  work on nose cones and payload sections at the   Starbase production site layout improvements will  continue until next year in the years to come it   is planned to destroy the lengthy manufacturing  tents so that the star Factory can grow in size   likewise planned is the removal of the mid  Bay as the high base capacity grows over time   the private space industry will be ruled by  SpaceX in fact it's so Advanced that their   starship rocket might one day Aid in erecting a  martian base or even a whole Martian City on the   other hand in a remote part of England engineers  at Pulsar are slavishly developing a spacecraft   that will far surpass Starship in capability the  human race will be able to explore the enigmatic   depths of our solar system and perhaps even  other star systems because of a reduction in the   amount of time it takes to get to Mars how is it  possible for them to carry out such a significant   technological advancement when will this rocket be  completed Does Elon need to worry then Pulsar is a   strange company its goal is to provide commercial  fusion power for Europe however they are   approaching it the wrong way interestingly Pulsar  does not develop its own reactors like helion does   rather they are creating their own reusable  rockets and plasma thrusters for satellites   contrary to popular belief the satellite Thruster  is powered by the same technology as magnetic   confinement Fusion reactors as a result by  developing and launching Satellites with   this technology they may refine it and eventually  turn it into a working fusion power plant which is   what they intend to achieve a middle ground  between plasma thrusters and a full-fledged   Fusion reactor was discovered by someone at Pulsar  though and it has the potential to revolutionize   space travel as a result they created the direct  Fusion drive and they intend to test and ship a   functioning prototype of the engine in 2027. we  don't even know what kind of fusion reactor would   power the DFD because this project is still in  its early stages and its intellectual property   is very closely guarded however we can speculate  the heaviest sword of fusion reactors are tokamax   which are enormous reactors with a donut-like  shape the Tokamak type of fusion reactor would   not be effective as spacecraft propulsion because  of its enormous bulk which would slow acceleration   and increased fuel consumption however Pulsar  hopes to construct their own Tokamak in the   future although significantly lighter than  the plasma thrusters being developed by Pulsar   Interstellar reactors like the national ignition  facility employ entirely different Technologies   thus neither of these reactor types is probably  being used by pulsar but magnetized Target Fusion   reactors use technology that is comparable  to that of pulsar's plasma thrusters and our   compact powerful and light in reality they are two  extremely potent plasma rockets that are oriented   in the opposite directions the technology used in  helion's reactor is remarkably similar to this one   to eject the plasma out of the craft at a speed  of more than a thousand miles per second instead   of using the Fusion Energy to create power so  what's the big deal why is pulsar's DFD such   a possibly groundbreaking piece of technology it  is because it is the only space propulsion system   that provides High thrust and high impulse  and let's get into detail a little further   the term ion thrusters may be familiar to you  they resemble the plasma thrusters of the Pulsar   in a lot of ways both of these engines produce  their propelling Force by the utilization of   electromagnetic force which propels tiny amounts  of propellant at astronomically high speeds   small amounts of thrust a few grams are produced  by these thrusters they may however operate for   years on only a few kilos of fuel due to how  little of it they need with a high impulse   this is referred to chemical Rockets the ones we  are all familiar with are the exact opposite they   have a strong push and a weak impulse because of  this they suck up fuel quickly and can only burn   for a few minutes even if they have enough Force  to escape the atmosphere and enter Orbit on the   other hand Fusion engines have the capacity to  produce extremely high thrust while consuming   very little fuel giving them a very high impulse  why therefore is this important what this means   is that we can carry more and travel farther  and faster in space in just a few minutes a   chemical rocket can accelerate rapidly and burn  through hundreds of tons of fuel this doesn't   pose a problem if all you want to do is orbit the  earth however it restricts interplanetary speeds   in principle an ion or plasma engine might  accelerate a spacecraft to incredible speeds   however doing so would take decades and render it  unusable for anything other than course correction   however without the need for enormous fuel tanks  Fusion drives can accelerate quickly for days on   end this enables a DFD powered spaceship to carry  large payloads while having the time it takes to   Journey to Mars do you think SpaceX should  be concerned if Pulsar succeeds in creating   a powerful Fusion propulsion system dfds probably  won't take the place of chemical launch Vehicles   like Starship although they have a high thrust  they presumably cannot achieve a similar amount of   push without spending much more money DFD vessels  on the other hand are more likely to stay in orbit   and serve as space infrastructure the market for  launch Vehicles which are used to place payloads   in Earth and Martian orbit will probably continue  to be dominated by SpaceX however if a DFD craft   can transport several hundred tons from Earth to  Mars and vice versa in half the time of a Starship   it makes sense for Pulsar to develop a fleet of  Martian Express DFD spaceships these would never   set foot on the ground instead they would Ferry  payloads between the planets with a launcher and   Lander akin to those found on a Starship carrying  the payloads to the ground from the DFD ship   therefore while SpaceX will make it possible  for a martian Metropolis to exist DFD ships may   end up handling the majority of the logistics for  transporting supplies and people to and from the   red planet since the substantially faster travel  times could mean the difference between life   and death for such a precarious Colony this is  especially crucial if we plan to dwell permanently   on Mars a powerful engine though might also make  it possible to conduct groundbreaking research   with the help of missions like New Horizons  Voyager 1 and 2 Cassini and Voyager 1 and 2. we  

have previously investigated the furthest regions  of the solar system these missions however took a   very long time to Journey billions of kilometers  to the far away planets moons and asteroids they   also add extremely strict payload restrictions  making it impossible to add more sensors Landers   and probes to the mission theoretically a DFD  craft with numerous additional land or missions   may go to these far-off planets in a few years  this means that humans could finally travel to   Enceladus and explore its potentially habitable  cold Waters or search for the enigmatic planet 9.   NASA has even suggested a number of various sorts  of speculative Fusion vehicles that if successful   might transport humans to the Proxima Centauri  star system our nearest star system in less than   10 years the mission at hand is not a flyby the  Earth-like world of Proxima B could be reached   by these Fusion craft if they make it to the  other end so maybe pulsar's DFD will be used in   the future to transport us to our Cosmic neighbor  therefore Pulsar has the potential to rule space   exploration and interplanetary travel however  whether the DFD will work as suggested is still   up in the air even if the test in 2027 passes  without a hitch it might still be some time before   one is powerful enough to outgun a Starship launch  probes to far-off moons or even reach Proxima Elon   Musk may now rest peacefully for the time being  on the other hand the NASA dragonfly mission is   one of the most eagerly awaited Expeditions into  the Solar System's outer regions the mission which   will examine Saturn's moon Titan is scheduled  to launch in June 2027. Titan is one of the   only moons in the solar system with any observable  atmosphere a liquid cycle that resembles that of   Earth but with methane and is simply our favorite  Moon dragonfly will launch a mobile Lander with   eight rotors capable of hopping across the moon's  surface making it more technologically advanced   than the Mars helicopter ingenuity according to  NASA dragonfly will be able to go about 10 miles   in each half-hour flight which is a significant  increase in range above a wheeled Rover's   capability it will examine a region that is  hundreds of miles or kilometers across throughout   the course of its two-year mission dragonfly must  first glide through the atmosphere of Titan and   soft land on Frozen Ground since the atmosphere  of the moon is filled with a thick layer of   hydrocarbon smog before it can take to the skies  on its own the Shangri-La Dune field next to a   50-mile wide crater selk will be the location of  dragonfly's Landing a team of scientists led by   planetary scientist Leia bonifoy of Cornell  University has re-examined the images taken   of this area by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during  its mission to Saturn between 2004 and 2017. the  

results provide the most precise assessment  of dragonfly's proposed Landing site to date   dragonfly according to bonafoy is going to  a scientifically remarkable area dragonfly   will touch down in an equatorial dry area of Titan  where it occasionally showers liquid methane but   is otherwise more like to an earth desert with  Dunes a few tiny mountains and an impact crater   selk is an intriguing place the impact that carved  it out which is thought to be geologically young   a few hundred million years or less would have  melted the local ice causing reactions between the   fresh liquid water and organic molecules existing  in the hydrocarbon soup on Titan's surface   astrobiologists are particularly interested in the  primordial chemistry that would have developed as   a result which would have involved carbon-rich  compounds but was not mediated by living things   however the resolution of cassini's radar pictures  of the region is only a thousand feet per pixel at   best we undoubtedly missed a lot of little rivers  and scenery according to bonafoy since the Huygens   Lander from the European Space Agency parachuted  to Titan's surface in January 2005 while riding   along with Cassini scientists are confident that  such Rivers indeed exist on Titan but these Rivers   do not contain any liquid water because they  are far too cold at -290 degrees Fahrenheit they   are not even close to being able to support life  rather vaporize methane and ethane fall from the   icy Sky wash away from the water ice bedrock and  enter River tributaries that feed enormous Lakes   however cassini's pictures did offer a variety  of Vantage points it made 127 close passes to   Titan during its Mission and during each one it  observed features in the vicinity of dragonfly's   Landing location from various angles varying in  inclination from 5 to 72 degrees sounds perfect   right however dragonfly won't reach Titan until  2034 which is a seven year waiting period however   researchers from Princeton satellite systems and  other universities and aeronautical institutions   believe that a direct Fusion Drive may be able  to travel between Earth and Titan with greater   speed and effectiveness a case made in a recent  paper which was published in the journal ACTA   astronautica is that a fusion power drive which  can provide propulsion while also powering onboard   Electronics may be able to transport more fuel  and cargo to Outer moons like Titan the paper   also created a scenario that illustrates what a  Titan Mission powered by a DFD would look like   a DFD could carry 2220 pounds to tighten in  31 months according to a 2021 study from an   international research team the dragonfly Mission  now weighs in at around 990 pounds according to   this new study the Expedition will be powered  by the Princeton field reversed configuration   idea created at the Princeton plasma Physics  laboratory although the fusion used in this drive   is not exactly the same as the fusion that will  power the fusion reactors on Earth for example   it uses a novel radio frequency heating method at  its core it exploits the same physics that power   our sun one more benefit one of the elements that  is most prevalent in the universe hydrogen is used   as fuel in this device this Fusion Drive was first  described in the following manner by researchers   two years ago the propellant in this DFD first  undergoes ionization before entering an area with   a strong externally applied magnetic field there  the propellant circulates around the engine's core   where a nuclear fusion reaction takes place and  heats the propellant with its byproducts thrust   is then produced as the hot propellant expands  into a magnetic nozzle the use of a second Fusion   reactor to create a closed-loop electrical power  generator would greatly extend dragonfly's current   three-year Mission parameters according to this  new paper and would also enable a spacecraft to   reach Titan in less than two years nuclear power  already shows signs of being essential for the   future of human space exploration even if Fusion  may still have some work to do before it can be   installed on a NASA spacecraft for instance the  NASA Innovative advanced concepts program has   already begun phase one development of a nuclear  thermal propulsion system a fission system that   could transport Freight to Mars in just 45  days instead of 8 months as it turns out both   domestically and internationally nuclear power  may very well be the way of the future and that   ends today's video what do you think of ship 25  and booster 9. will they reach lower Earth orbit   or Leo and how about pulsar's Fusion rocket engine  let us know your thoughts in the comment box below   please subscribe to our channel to receive  updates about more videos and don't forget   to click on the thumbs up to like today's video  please share this video with your family and your   friends we'll see you in the next video thank  you so much for watching for watching for watch

2023-06-09

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