Elon Musk Reacts to his Appearance on Sunday’s ‘Simpsons’

Last Sunday, inventor/entrepreneur Elon Musk guest starred as himself in the Simpsons episode “The Musk Who Fell to Earth.” Although the show endlessly praised Elon (Lisa called him “possibly the greatest living inventor”) they got in a jab or two as well, in classic Simpsons fashion.

“For a man who likes electric cars, he sure burns a lot of rocket fuel,” Lisa remarked, failing to mention that his SpaceX Dragon rocket also killed a bald eagle during its descent. Of course this comment sent the Twittersphere into a frenzy, with folks on both sides of the issue commenting, including Musk himself.

“If u saw @TheSimpsons and wonder why @SpaceX doesn’t use an electric rocket to reach orbit, it is cuz that is impossible,” Musk tweeted. He added: “Reason is Newton’s Third Law. In vacuum, there is nothing to ‘push’ against. You must react against ejected mass.”

Addressing other parts of the show, he also tweeted: “And pls don’t ask me about space elevators until someone at least builds a carbon nanotube structure longer than a footbridge,” “Ion thrusters are great, but have extremely tiny force (photon thruster even less). Must have more thrust than weight or you don’t go up,” and “Final one: anything launched by a railgun (if you could ever reach ~ Mach 27) would explode upon exiting the barrel in our dense atmosphere.”

So there you have it.

Before we close, I must say it’s admirable that Musk, an undoubtedly & endlessly busy man, felt the desire to clarify the science behind some of the episode’s jokes, and that he took time out to address fan queries in general. He could have just asked why someone questioning scientific accuracy (and probably wearing a shirt reading “Genius at Work”) is watching a children’s cartoon, or just left folks to solve the answers themselves.

Clearly it took a rocket scientist to figure this one out.