There have been delays with NASA’s Artemis mission to the Moon. Scheduled and postponed multiple times, Artemis-1’s launch was never completed. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and a multibillionaire, has a proposition for NASA right now. What might be the solution according to Musk? Let’s find out!
In a « quick disconnect » phase of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket launch at the time of the launch of Artemis-1, NASA engineers were unable to stop a hydrogen leak.
NASA has a tolerance for a small quantity of hydrogen leaking, and anything beyond a 4% concentration of hydrogen close to the « quick disconnect » is regarded as a flammability threat, according to Eric Berger of Ars Technica.
In response to Berger’s « correct assessment, » Musk said, « Raptor design originally used H2 (hydrogen), but switched to CH4 (methane), which is, in my opinion, the best combination of high efficiency and ease of operation. »
The delta-v difference between H2 and CH4 is minimal for the majority of missions, according to Musk, because the CH4 tank is significantly smaller and doesn’t require insulation.
