Still taken from The Simpsons
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has become the latest famous name to guest star as themselves on super-long-running animated show The Simpsons.
The episode – which aired in the US last night – featured Musk befriending Homer before revamping Springfield’s nuclear power plant and installing electric, self-driving cars in every home. He exits the town by taking off in his famed Dragon spacecraft.
Perhaps not content with the appearance, Musk has today been moved to debunk the idea that an electricity-powered Dragon could travel into space.
Taking to Twitter, the 43-year-old pointed out that use an electric rocket to reach orbit is impossible, also taking time to dismiss the possibility that space elevators can be developed, “until someone at least builds a carbon nanotube structure longer than a footbridge”. Read the tweets below.
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
Reason is Newton’s Third Law. In vacuum, there is nothing to “push” against. You must react against ejected mass.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015
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
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2015
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
Though Musk deems it currently imporssible, Japanese construction firm Obayashi Corporation announced plans in September to construct a giant elevator with the capability of carrying humans 96,000 kilometres into space. The proposed elevator will be powered by magnetic linear motors that will propel people to a newly-built space station in seven days at a fraction of the cost of rockets. Obayashi hope to complete the project by 2050.
The Simpsons isn’t the first cartoon to feature an animated Musk. In an episode first aired last year, South Park poked fun at the entreprenuer in a Wacky Races-style episode that saw a Tesla Motors event flop due to the popularity of a ride-sharing app.
Here are two clips of Musk’s Simpsons appearance released via YouTube.
