Musk fires up Raptor rocket

Elon Musk has released the first pictures of the Raptor rocket engine, which he hopes will deliver a colony to Mars.

SpaceX propulsion just achieved first firing of the Raptor interplanetary transport engine pic.twitter.com/vRleyJvBkx

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2016

The Raptor rocket uses liquid methane as fuel, in conjunction with liquid oxygen oxidizer, to develop much more thrust than the Merlin engines SpaceX currently uses. They will be used to drive SpaceX rockets to Mars, where hopefully colonists can manufacture fuel on the surface to get back home.

"Chamber pressure is almost 3X Merlin, so engine is about the same size for a given area ratio," Musk said. "Production Raptor goal is specific impulse of 382 seconds and thrust of 3 MN (~310 metric tons) at 300 bar."

Musk will be giving a much-anticipated talk on Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress in Mexico, outlining his plans for Mars exploration in more detail. ®