Elon Musk goes Game of Thrones, imagines dragon wings for Starship
Now we know which house Elon Musk would pledge fealty to.
The business end of the SpaceX Starship hopper prototype.
Elon Musk's always-flowing stream of consciousness tweets gushed ahead of the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere on Sunday.
The SpaceX and Tesla founder mused about adding giant, stainless-steel dragon wings to the SpaceX Starship.
Thinking about adding giant stainless steel dragon wings to Starship
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2019
I think we can all agree that would look amazing. When asked, Musk said he was a "6.5" on a 1 to 10 scale of seriousness about the concept. Musk noted that Starship will land on a ring of fire, rather than breathe fire.
He also suggested that steel-membrane wings may be able to "lower Starship's orbital reentry temp to ~1000 degrees C, which would allow the whole surface to be uncooled bare metal."
With steel membrane wings like a Dragon, we may be able to lower Starship’s orbital reentry temp to ~1000 degrees C, which would allow the whole surface to be uncooled bare metal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2019
Not since Harry Potter has a fan base been so into identifying with a certain house. You may feel kinship for the direwolf-loving Starks, but Musk has dragons on his mind. He bent the knee to House Targaryen, home of Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2019
This isn't too surprising considering SpaceX named its cargo and crew capsule "Dragon."
Crew Dragon has yet to ferry actual humans to the International Space Station, but it will eventually have some dragon riders on board in the form of NASA astronauts. They just won't be wearing stylish fur coats like a certain queen we know.
Starship, minus dragon wings, currently exists in a prototype "hopper" form for testing purposes. The next-generation space vehicle is meant to eventually reach Earth orbit and beyond, including the moon and Mars.
Based on the pace of development, Starship may get to the Red Planet before we see George R.R. Martin's next book, The Winds of Winter.
