Elon Musk and the crew of SpaceX are hard at work at their Boca Chica, Texas, facility, and excitement is already growing over upcoming tests of the company's Starship Raptor engine. The engine was created especially for trips to Mars, which are right around the corner now.
With their formidable new rocket, SpaceX have designed things so that methane and liquid oxygen will be employed to act as propellants so future astronauts will be able to make the journey to Mars, and then once there, take resources which have been harvested to make the journey safely back to Earth, as Inverse reported.
Elon Musk recently stated on Twitter that the plan is to first create one 200 metric ton thrust engine, which would be used for the ship and booster, but that versions after this would be markedly different.
"Initially making one 200 metric ton thrust engine common across ship & booster to reach the moon as fast as possible. Next versions will split to vacuum-optimized (380+ sec Isp) & sea-level thrust optimized (~250 ton)."
