Has SpaceX developed any new materials?

It was my understanding they use pretty standard steel alloys.

I’m not sure if they developed them themselves, but the alloys SpaceX uses in the pre burners in the raptor engines are really advanced and likely have not been known (in the US) before. They have to be able to withstand pure (nearly) oxygen gas at very high temperatures and pressures. I wouldn’t be surprised if these super specialize alloys were developed by spacex.

The Soviets figured it out during the end of the space race and US engineers basically assumed they were lying bc they thought the metallurgy was impossible.

SX 300 & soon SX 500. Kind of a modern version of Inconel superalloys

Inconel is known in the US as it was invented there in the 1930s - well before Musk was born. They might be called superalloys, but there is nothing particularly sophisticated about them from a scientific perspective. SX300 / SX500 are minor revisions which take some R&D but technologically it is 1930's stuff.

This is plain wrong. In the US it was assumed that Oxygen-rich preburners would erode any manufacturable material - metal, ceramic, or exotic. When the RD-170 (If I remember correctly) was found to have an oxygen-rich preburner, very knowledgeable people called it a lie, misrepresentation, or proclaimed that is was severely wearing (possibly ablating) and thus had to be very heavy.

The Raptors are reusable (even air-ignitable, with centisecond timing precision to achieve a specific thrust) engines with an oxygen-rich preburner, and to boot they have the highest chamber pressure of any rocket engine ever. Thus, they also have a very high (possibly highest, we don't know) pump pressure (the preburner _is_ the pump), and they're doing that with oxygen-rich combustion.

There is some crazy material making up that preburner chamber, and the pipes down to the pintles. Materials that until recently were though to be beyond manufacturing capability. And this is in a reusable engine that costs less than an RD-68. Frankly, it looks like magic.

Elon Musk disagres with what you think Elon Musk does.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1008385171744174080

I should have been more specific. My response regarding "plain wrong" is in response to this:

> They might be called superalloys, but there is nothing particularly sophisticated about them

I heard that the advanced materials team of SpaceX went to help design the alloys used for the castings.

They needed a castable aluminum resistant to corrosion, rigid enough that didn’t need heat treatment.

From what I heard at Munroe they had to design a new alloy to meet all requirement and that is unheard of in the automotive market (off the shelf components culture)

It make sense that SpaceX had expert in that field (for turbine components)

> Our goal should be to make things better first and then to make money second

While I would rather live in that world, you don't seem to have described America, corporate laws or capitalism. In fact, TSLA should be listed as a public benefit company if that's the case.

Now do Amazon and give your take on how it's great for society for them to branch out into every business sector imaginable.

I think this is an example of the differences in image that Bezos and Musk have made, Musk creating an impression (and perhaps even being) more of an idealist

It's great for customer like me, and there are hundreds of millions of us, so that's quite a lot of benefit to society. And the things that Amazon is criticized for, like treatment of its employees, are not unique to Amazon itself, but standard in the industries that they operate in. It's just that journalists don't report on it when other less successful companies do it. The case against Amazon, and other billionaires, is driven by envy much more than anything else.

The thing about Amazon is that they have proven that they are willing to operate at a loss for as long as it takes to destroy their competition and take a monopoly on the market (diapers.com, etc.)

The true American dream!

And how does Twitter fit into Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink?

marketing

Best engineers in machine learning go help self driving team.

Expert in data centers help Tesla build its cluster.

Experts on internet security help Tesla, SpaceX with their information security.

Imagine the possibilities of Twitter to help improve SpaceX. No, I mean really, if you have that broad an imagination then I consider you to be the next Edward de Bono.

Well it can amplify praise and neuter criticism, of course.