Elon Musk keynote @ American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

[Dr Mordrid]

Notes from Elon Musk's keynote address before the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) conference yesterday -

• Super high efficiency staged combustion engine to be announced later in the year.

(NOTE: SpaceX bought the tech for Rocketdyne's RS-84 (spec PDF....) staged combustion / re-usable kerosene engine a while back. If they build an engine based on that tech it could well be the Merlin 2 BFR [big f***ing rocket], an engine even larger than the F1 used on the legendary Saturn V Moon rocket. SpaceX designs based on it are spec'ed at up to 160 metric tons to orbit - 3x the loft of Falcon Heavy)

• Looking at systems to deliver 50 metric tons to Mars, fully reusable. Nothing fleshed out yet though.

(yup - Merlin 2)

• Discussed progress in human rating of Dragon, escape systems and vertical landing.
• Electrical propulsion a good idea for trip to Mars, needs to have enough thrust to matter and energy efficient.

(obviously VASIMR)

• Crossfeed on Falcon Heavy useful for missions with heavy payloads, will probably be disabled for smaller payloads.

(crossfeed = pumping fuel/LOX from the outboard stages into the core stage so that when they separate the core has full tanks and can continue higher before the 2nd stage lights)

• In discussion with NASA about missions beyond Pluto, would probably use crossfeed for that.

(beyond PLUTO ?!? Must be plans to explore the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud, maybe the minor planets beyond Pluto.)

• Permanent Mars / Earth ferries may have a place in the long term. Initial thoughts are towards a one mission infrastructure.
• Funding for Mars would probably be a combination of government and private. Would make one hell of an x-prize!
• Expects to build 400 engines per year.
• Falcon Heavy is 20 metric tons to Geostationary Transfer Orbit.

(20 metric tons? That's HUGE)