Musk Says Nxt-Gen Tesla Roadster To Use ~10 Small Rocket Thrusters

They will be distributed around the car to facilitate increased acceleration (of course), cornering & braking (biggest departure). How radical would this be on racetracks and how fast banned for non competitiveness? Faster than the old vacuum cleaner Chaparrals, I’d bet. Thinking of those, I wonder if a couple more nossels could be added to give down thrust for better traction and they wouldn’t have the debre issues of the Chaparrals used to ban those?

The rocket engines will be adapted from his successful “configuration using ‘adapted cold gas thrusters’, which SpaceX uses on the second stage of its Falcon 9 rocket.”

Holy ****inkus!!!:AHHH: If it were anybody else, I would be laughing about now instead of in awe.

https://electrek.co/2018/06/09/elon-...ket-thrusters/

In further little reported Tesla news, the company announced large improvements in its battery electricity density and cost per kWh.

https://electrek.co/2018/06/09/tesla...breakthroughs/

Tesla needed some good news!

The article on the cost for the battery packs was very interesting---and somewhat typical of developing technologies. My thoughts on the "rocket assist"---that is downright scary. Not the application itself, but what some bozo driving one might be able to accomplish :uhuh:

I have no idea what kind of weight, complexity, cost, packaging factors such a “cold gas thrusters” would imply or introduce for maniacs on the public streets, but the one feature of added braking efficiency is intriguing the most. I am guessing that this would be a system which has a central gas production mechanism routing the gas to nossels at key locations around the vehicle and that is one I never saw coming.

The article on Tesla batteries left too much out for me. As you know from my other posts, I try to follow battery development, as I disparately want EV’s to succeed and better batteries are the key to them doing so in my time as a driver. I still derive great pleasure from getting behind the wheel, but I see the window closing both as I age and as technology and those directing it seemingly have as their goal to put us all in sterile driverless vessels as controlled passengers. Ultimately safer; ultimate joylessness. Another tool of the collective. Oddly, Tesla is a leading instrument of both batteries and AI vehicles.

Lots of naysayers on Musk’s idea in this article —

https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/16/1...ex-falcon-copv

I'll join the naysayers. The idea makes sense in the weightless vacuum of space, but not on land in an automobile. I think it is a publicity stunt. Just think how much free advertisement this statement has generated.

Might work strictly as an emergency braking boast in a similar fashion to the old system trains once used when they carried a load of sand in containers that the engineer could trigger by pulling a cord that dumped the sand on the tracks ahead of the wheels to make better traction. They called it “Big Holing,” I guess because the sand was dumped from a big hole in the sand container.

In Musk’s scheme if used just for big emergency stops, the COPV tank could be much smaller considering it would be single use and could then be refilled from a servicing facility, thus reducing on board filling mechanism, weight, space requirements and complexity. It could be thought of more in the realm of single use air bags. The big problem with that sudden stop capability far beyond common brakes and tires is getting hit in back by following cars, which could not do the same, and items in the car would need much better securing (including or especially people in them) because they would be flying forward faster. Also, such a system might work best with coming vehicle computer operating systems which could better measure the need for applying it and the safety of following vehicles and security of items in the vehicle. Right down Musk’s alley.

I’ve got to get in touch with Musk to wise him up. He’s got a huge ranch out here in West Texas. Maybe I can drive over and have a chat, if I can find time.