Was it a "Game of Thrones" joke? We're not entirely sure.
Dragon Wings
Sometimes, it's easy to tell if space travel visionary and meme reviewer Elon Musk is joking on Twitter. Other times, not so much.
Just before the return of HBO's mega-hit "Game of Thrones," Musk tweeted that he was "thinking about adding giant stainless steel dragon wings to Starship" that could allow his eventually-Mars-bound spacecraft to keep cool during re-entry. "Starship will land on a ring of fire," he added later.
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
Winter is Coming
When asked how serious he was on a scale of one to ten, Musk gave the plan a 6.5. And, to be fair, we've thought Musk was joking about plenty of things before — leading to his fair share of successes.
He put together a company devoted to digging tunnels called The Boring Company, for instance — and even marketed a novelty flamethrower.
Shoot for the Moon
Besides, SpaceX's Starship is just as much of a moonshot as Musk's other endeavors: a spacecraft that's meant to shift the paradigm interplanetary travel, eventually offering up to 100 passengers a trip to the Moon or even Mars. From red-hot, futuristic "heatshield hex tiles" to a shiny retro-looking stainless steel dome, Starship is already looking like something straight out of science fiction.
So why not throw some high fantasy legendary creature wings on top of the pile?
READ MORE: 'Game of Thrones': Elon Musk Proposes Dragon Wings for SpaceX Starship [Inverse]
More on Starship: SpaceX's Starship Hopper Completes First Tethered “Hop”
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