Two months after Elon Musk's Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launch pad, the entrepreneur has finally revealed what caused the expensive bang.
Speaking to CNBC, Musk said the rocket exploded due to a problem with ultra-cold oxygen reaction with carbon fibre in the rocket's fuel tank.
The catastrophic issue, which was alluded to at the start of November, is said to have happened during the fuelling procedures. "I think we’ve gotten to the bottom of the problem," Musk told the broadcaster.
He explained that as the rocket was being loaded with oxygen – SpaceX mixes oxygen with liquid kerosene to fly – the propellant was too cold meaning it froze and caused the problem. Oxygen gaseous state freezes at −218.79 °C. The SpaceX boss said it was a "surprising" problem and one that has "never been encountered before in the history of rocketry".
SpaceX's rocket exploded on September 1 while it was preparing for launch at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. While nobody was injured in the blast, a satellite part-owned by Facebook was strapped to the rocket at the time and was lost in the fireball. Despite the problem, Musk said SpaceX launches could restart before the beginning of 2017.
Elsewhere during his appearance on CNBC, Musk re-stated his position that robots taking human jobs would continue as technology develops. The solution? A wholesale change in the way people are paid.
"There is a pretty good chance we'll end up with a universal basic income (UBI), or something like that, due to automation," Musk said. Under the principles of UBI, every individual person is guaranteed a set income. The payment, which could be issued in replacement of a wage, could be made by an individual organisation or government and be enough for a person to live on, or supplement their wage. The money, acting as a replacement for welfare payments, could be spent on anything the individual receiving it wanted.
The idea of UBI is gaining traction, with several countries around the world set to trial differing schemes. More than 100 families in Oakland will be given between $1,000-$2,000 (£800-1,600) per month to live on; Finland will randomly start paying 2,000 people a fee in 2017; and the Netherlands will also put a scheme to the test next year.
In an interview with WIRED.com, out-going president Barack Obama said in the next 20 years, jobs of all levels will be replaced by AI and there is a discussion to be had about UBI. "Now, whether a universal income is the right model, is it gonna be accepted by a broad base of people?" he said. "That’s a debate that we’ll be having over the next 10 or 20 years."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
