Elon Musk seems pretty proud of his company SpaceX’s new rocket engines.
This week, Musk showed off a batch of the new Raptor 2 engines at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, where they will be used in the first orbital flight of the company’s Starship megarocket later this year.
“Raptor 2 Rocket Engines at Starbase, Each Producing Over Half a Million Pounds (230 Tons) of Force”, musk wrote in the Twitter post on Tuesday (April 26). Musk’s photo showed what appeared to be more than a dozen of the new rocket engines, but his Twitter followers saw something else: the evil Daleks from Doctor Who.
Raptor 2 rocket engines at Starbase, each producing more than half a million pounds (230 tons) of force pic.twitter.com/9ixxXXceG3April 26, 2022
“It was only a matter of time before he started building Daleks,” Twitter user Richard Nellis wrote. when the term “Daleks” started trending after Musk’s photo was posted.
“Turns out Elon has created Daleks. Elon IS Davros”, Simon wroteanother Twitter user, referring to the creator of the Dalek warriors, who reside inside machines that resemble the nozzle of a rocket engine.
It was only a matter of time before he started building Daleks. pic.twitter.com/YsefAt6DgLApril 26, 2022
It turns out that Elon has created Daleks. Elon IS Davros. https://t.co/IwA6ID4wshApril 26, 2022
Here’s a look at the Daleks from Doctor Who. Do you think SpaceX’s Raptor 2 engines are similar?
At first I thought these were a bunch of daleks pic.twitter.com/zuRzlwYC4lApril 26, 2022
To be clear, Elon Musk has not created a race of evil warriors who shout “Exterminate!” as they take over the world. Raptor 2 will be the working engine for SpaceX’s Starship rockets and their huge Super Heavy boosters.
Each Super Heavy booster will be powered by 33 Raptor 2 engines, while the Starship vehicle will use nine of its own Raptor 2 engines. Like SpaceX’s veteran Merlin engines on its Falcon 9 rockets, the Raptor 2 is designed to be reusable, just like the Starship and Super Heavy vehicles.
Raptor 2 runs on liquid methane and liquid oxygen, which is a new fuel for SpaceX. Its Falcon 9 rockets use liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene in their Merlin engines.
SpaceX has been developing its Raptor engines for several years, with Raptor 2 as the result. It has a more streamlined design than the first version of SpaceX’s Raptor, including less complicated piping and plumbing.
“V1 looks like a stack of Christmas tree spaghetti: lots of ‘lying’ parts. V2 is very streamlined while also increasing oomph,” Musk said in a February 10 Starship update.
It may be SpaceX’s work to optimize the Raptor 2 that gave it a more Dalek-like look for Doctor Who fans this week. Still, some fans of the sci-fi show were surprised that Musk hadn’t turned to a different Who villain to emulate.
I always thought that Elon Musk would create the Cybermen before he created the Daleks. pic.twitter.com/rGGFYoflsqApril 26, 2022
“I always thought that Elon Musk would create the Cybermen before he created the Daleks.” Geekgirlforever wrote.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@espacio.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. follow us @Spacepointcom, Facebook Y Instagram.
