Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to debate the concept of electric rocket ships with his latest critic: Lisa Simpson.
After the entrepreneur took off on his Dragon spacecraft at the end of Sunday night's episode of 'The Simpsons,' Lisa says, "for a man who likes electric cars he sure burns a lot of rocket fuel," according to The Verge. This prompted Musk to explain why space exploration with rockets that run on electricity is unfeasible.
"If you saw @TheSimpsons and wonder why @SpaceX doesn't use an electric rocket to reach orbit, it is cuz that is impossible," Musk Tweeted, adding that Newton's Third Law is the reason for the concept not being a reality.
"In vacuum, there is nothing to 'push' against," he explained. "You must react against ejected mass ... 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."
The episode, titled "The Musk that Fell to Earth," guest-stars Musk as an inventor who has run out of ideas, KSPR reported. However, the ramblings of Homer Simpson inspire him to get back in the game, providing self-driving electric cars for every home in Springfield, rebuilding the town's power plant to run on electricity and even introducing a high-speed transport Hyperloop system.
However, these projects lead to many Springfield residents losing their jobs, prompting Homer to end their friendship with Musk because "none of his pie in the sky ideas ever work out."
As it has done with celebrities in the past, the show made good-humored jokes about Musk and his reputation as an inventor in Sunday's episode, such as "you're the guy who put wheels on luggage!?," The Verge reported. The episode also made jokes about violin-playing quadcopters and self-packing luggage.
Electric rocket ships wasn't the only topic Musk discussed on Twitter, saying that elevators that take people into space won't be a reality "until someone at least builds a carbon nanotube structure longer than a footbridge." He closed out with some advice for people looking to use other ways to get into space without rockets.
"Final one: anything launched by a railgun (if you could ever reach ~ Mach 27) would explode upon exiting the barrel in our defense atmosphere," Musk Tweeted.
