Elon Musk, during another interview with the famous TV presenter Joe Rogan, shared interesting details about his, perhaps, the most interesting project - Starship. It turns out that the design of the fully reusable super-heavy space system was directly influenced by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
A notable conversation took place on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, an excerpt of which Rogan posted on his YouTube channel. When it came to the Starship and its out-of-the-box looks, Musk said that while discussing the design, he repeated a scene from the movie The Dictator. Namely, he categorically ordered to make the nose of the spacecraft pointed, not rounded.
In the parody film "Dictator" there is a scene where the oppressive supreme ruler of the fictional North African country Wadia comes with an inspection to his subordinates, who are creating a nuclear missile. Admiral-General Haffaz Aladin, performed by Sasha Baron Cohen, sees that her warhead is rounded - it has a spherical fairing. He is outraged that in such a design, the weapon will cause ridicule of enemies: a sharpened form is needed that inspires fear.
All my friends have nuclear weapons … Dictator 2012
According to Musk, the same happened with Starship: he demanded to make it pointy. And Rogan, barely holding back his laughter, asked if this decision affected the characteristics of the spacecraft. The billionaire replied that no, it did not affect in any way, only became more beautiful. Although later he added that, in fact, "maybe so a little worse [in terms of aerodynamics], but it looks cool."
It's hard to tell if the eccentric entrepreneur was joking or told the truth. In any case, the SpaceX mythology has been replenished with another funny story, and for a company that is actively involved in public activity, this is useful. In addition to the Starship design, the two celebrities discussed the future of the entire project. Rogan, in particular, wondered when, according to Musk, the reusable spacecraft would fly as often as planes. He thought about it, counted something in his head - and said that in a couple of years, in 2023.
Also, the SpaceX founder shared with the host and his audience some of the nuances of rocketry. According to him, in rocket science, most of the difficulties are associated not with the development of the carrier and its systems, but with the production processes. Musk explained that creating the necessary infrastructure for manufacturing, assembling, servicing and launching missiles is a thousand times more difficult than the missile itself. And, most interestingly, according to the experience of his other company, Tesla, in the automotive industry this difference is an order of magnitude greater: ten thousand times.
That is, making a prototype is a snap. But setting it up for mass production and operation is an incredibly difficult task. By the way, Musk recently talked about the same thing with one of the most famous auto experts in the world, Sandy Munro. In any case, the entrepreneur does not change his habits and tries to tell as much as possible about his activities to fans, colleagues and simply interested ones.