San Francisco, Sep 4 : As NASA scrubbed the Artemis 1 uncrewed mission to the Moon time, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday came up with an idea for the mission that could finally land astronauts on the moon’s surface after years of.NASA engineers were unable to fix the hydrogen leak in the “quick disconnect” part of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket launch on Saturday.
According to Eric Berger of Ars Technica, NASA has a tolerance for small amounts of hydrogen leakage, and anything that exceeds a 4 percent amount of hydrogen close to the “quick disconnect” point is considered to be a hazard to flammability.
Musk responded to Berger’s “accurate assessment’, stating that “Raptor design began with H2 (hydrogen) but then changed to CH4 (hydrogen).The latter is the best combination of the highest efficiency as well as ease of operating in my view.”
“Delta-v difference between CH4 and H2 is very small for the majority of missions, as the tank for CH4 is smaller and there is no insulation required,” Musk explained.
The delta-v refers to the amount of speed which a rocket engine could cause to a spacecraft in the context of the precise impulse and the variations in the weight of the vehicle.
According to him CH4 (methane) is much easier to make in Mars and is “very crucial” to launch missions.
SpaceX is one of the first companies to make use of hydrogen and liquid methane as fuel.
Musk is also hoping for self-sustaining cities on the Red Planet in 20 years in the future, while his space firm prepares for the Starship mega rocket that will transport people and cargo on the moon, Mars and beyond.
In the document, the NASA showtopper “was an 8-inch diameter line that carried liquid hydrogen to the rocket.It was a source of a persistent leak near the inlet, referred to as a quick-disconnect.It then exploded to the car”.
NASA will then have the launch window open from September 19 until October 4.
“However the opening of this window would require fixing the rocket on the pad, then receiving a waiver from the US Space Force, which manages the launch range across the Florida coast,” said the report.
The space agency is offering an additional Artemis I launch opportunity from October 17 through October 31.
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