Reuters said secondary trading of Neuralink stock valued the startup at about $5 billion. Two years ago, the brain implant company was valued at close to $2 billion.

Currently, 85% of pre-IPO companies are getting a discount of 47% in secondary trade. The value of Elon Musk’s Neuralink has more than doubled to $5 billion, according to Reuters, despite being years away from commercial approval.

The privately held brain transplant startup’s secondary trades have boosted its value in recent months, Reuters reported, citing the privately executed stock trades described by multiple sources.

Two years ago, Neuralink was valued at nearly $2 billion after its last known fundraising round, which raised $205 million.

To be sure, secondary trades, which are conducted by existing shareholders such as employees and early investors, tend to have lower volumes, potentially skewing valuation estimates. This is in contrast to a fundraising round or initial public offering (IPO), which attracts a wide range of new investors.

Secondary trades took place, placing Neuralink at $5 billion before it received FDA approval for human testing.

But then, according to an email seen by Reuters, Neuralink shares were put up for sale to investors in recent days for $55 each, a valuation of up to $7 billion. However, whether it will find takers at that price is unknown.

Climbing Neuralink’s valuation goes against the nature of most startups. Currently, 85% of pre-IPO companies are undergoing a 47% discount in secondary trades, Reuters reported citing Caplite data.

Neuralink aims to introduce neural-interface technology that can stimulate brain activity, such as in paralyzed patients.

Elon Musk has big ambitions, previously expressing that brain chips would open the door to mental telepathy or web-browsing as well as treating mental illness.

Previously, he indicated that human trials would take place in 2022, but was retracted by the Food and Drug Administration, citing safety concerns.

Although the FDA approval received on May 25 appears to have encouraged private enterprise, Neuralink still faces challenges. This is because the company is under scrutiny for a number of reasons.

A separate Reuters report from May found that the company may have handpicked insiders on its animal-research oversight committee who would benefit financially from allowing faster growth. The stock held by some employees has increased in value by 150% in two years.

Neuralink is also being investigated for animal-welfare violations, company employees told Reuters over hastily performed surgeries on monkeys, pigs and sheep.

A department for transport investigation is also underway to see whether the firm failed to carry out proper containment measures after transporting the chips removed from the monkey brains.

2] How SpaceX New Raptor Engines Work?

In early February 2018, SpaceX produced its first 100 Raptor 1 engines in about 36 months. Yes, of course he is mad, and asks questions; How was SpaceX able to roll out hundreds of Raptors without testing them, and still be confident that all Raptors would operate efficiently?

Before we get into the sweeter side of the whole story. Let’s talk more about what really happened. In June 2019, Musk claimed that SpaceX aims to make one Raptor engine every 12 hours before the end of the year. As is usually the case, that progress was far-fetched. And it seems that these are just statements without achievement.

There is no doubt that a high rate of Raptor production was required, but the efficiency of the Raptor 1 engine discourages the process – making the Raptor the fastest-produced orbital-class rocket engine in history. But could this dream come true with the use of the Raptor One engine? Oh no, that would seem like claiming that you can kill two birds with one stone.

Knowing full well that working with trial-and-error ideas in engineering leads to a reduction in efficiency, functionality and most importantly, wasted cost. So, instead of diverting attention, SpaceX has to cook in an engine at the efficiency it needed and the change it brought. Because, the same number of engines are needed in the Next Generation Starship rocket. Booster must act like Superman; The spacecraft has the capacity to carry cargo, the entire ship, propellant and the weight of 33 Raptor engines at a time.

So, in this way the Raptor 2 engine made a smooth breakthrough which leads us to the miracle behind the reusability of the Starship. How was this possible with the help of the Raptor 2 engine, and why did SpaceX completely abandon the Raptor One engine without any regrets? Let’s find out in today’s episode of Tech SpaceX. Raptor 2 is the God-sent engine for Starship, a marvel that beats all rocket engines in the history of rocket science and production.

The Raptor 2 engine is a beast that produces 510 000 pounds of thrust, in comparison you would have an F1 engine which was the only type of engine that had the highest thrust of about 1.5 million pounds prior to the birth of the Raptor 2 engine. , The Raptor 2 crushed everything, not only that, but it fueled our belief that anything imaginable is possible. Like firing up 33 engines on the bottom of a rocket, it’s like a black magic, invented by Elon’s bright mind.

But most importantly, all 33 Raptors are doing an admirable job at full throttle Starship, generating 7,600 tons, or 16.7 million pounds, of thrust atop the most powerful rocket, the Saturn 5, which is the first stage, leaving behind. Uses five F1 engines. the power of. Now, the non-common word SpaceX doesn’t want to joke with is reusability. And it seems the majority consider it a game-changing word.

It is not that easy to understand. The media speak this word only on news, but it has a unique technical meaning, which will change the mankind in the universe. Perhaps by now, you may be confused, but here’s what reusability means in the continuous operation of the Starship rocket. The reusable rocket engine is defined explicitly not to publicize the functionality of the Raptor 2 engine, but to reveal its unusual capability that has not been implemented in any other rocket in history.

Thus; The reusability of the Starship rocket is simply firing the rocket engine more than once. This means that the Starship rocket can go on another flight as soon as it takes off from the previous flight without any serious engine checks or maintenance, and it can work as long as the Starship rocket is in use. This is a game changer rocket operation without functional damage on parts that does not exist anywhere in history.

Elon Musk and SpaceX are all set to bring it to life. The first built Raptor 1 engine was not equipped with the functions necessary to appreciate reusability, but as soon as the Raptor two engine came into play, the scope and limits defied all rocket engineering that had ever been invented. But be aware, nothing good comes easily, and when it’s new under the sun, it’s tough.

Developing a conceptual engine for SpaceX was not a one-day job. Even though the required design was possible on the simulation system, it encountered a bottleneck. So, what are the challenges in building the Raptor engine and giving it a long life and making it efficient enough to operate for long periods of time? Honestly, anything that works repeatedly in extreme conditions is going to be much harder than it needs to perform for a few minutes.

For an orbital engine that is expected to be reused, we would need a reusable model that would reliably evaluate without errors over long periods of time. Turbo pumps are the most important and difficult components. Most rocket engines are open cycle designs in which fuel and oxidizer are extracted from the main system via a turbine to power a double centrifugal pump.

The exhaust from that process is thrown out the bellows of the engine and can be seen as a trail of black smoke as they are usually made very fuel efficient. Having rich fuel helps keep temperatures low, but turbine blades and seals are still sensitive to high temperatures and stresses, which can rapidly ruin micro-tolerant components.

More complex designs, such as the SpaceX Raptor, employ completely closed-cycle systems, which include a unique turbo pump for each fuel and oxidizer. Going for a completely closed cycle means that all the fuel and oxidizer is sent to the main combustion chamber and nothing is wasted.

Which means one of your turbo pump turbines must operate on less mixture, which increases the combustion temperature. Another factor to take into account is the need to restart reusable rocket engines, which is generally not a factor typical of single-use engines. Because of the added complexity, there are more potential problems.

This only scratches the surface of the Bell design, which should be able to resist the high combustion temperatures that are created inside the main chamber without cracking. In addition, NASA’s space flight videos show several Raptor engines self-destructing during testing. In fact, there are many factors that can lead to engine failure.

Raptor 2’s combustion chamber is subjected to one gigawatt of heat during the test, enough to melt all materials known to man. To keep these engines from melting down, considerable engineering is required, such as piping cryogenic fuel to cool the engines, but these systems are difficult to tune and perfect, which is why Raptor 2 is currently The engines are also subject to testing.

The rocket is undergoing periodic static fire tests to evaluate how well it can keep cool and whether it can keep burning for a long time while maintaining a long life cycle and whether it needs to be replaced. until SpaceX proves it is capable of completing many more launches before then. Raptor 2 will not be put into orbit. A pre-burner is used to initiate the combustion process in a full flow stage combustion engine by injecting a small amount of fuel.

Normally, few propellants are used at the start of a conventional open cycle engine, but the Raptor will use every last drop of fuel, making it one of the most efficient rocket engines ever built. However, the number of supply delays make it clear that they are also facing a lot of difficulties. Ultimately, this adds even more complexity to the work of SpaceX engineers, as the Raptors aim to be reused.

When a typical first stage rocket engine completes its mission, it will travel at the speed of sound, high in the atmosphere, hundreds of miles over the ocean. Therefore, it is actually quite challenging to retrofit the engine to a point where it can be reused without adding an unacceptable amount of weight. If you want to fly back to the ground on the wings you will need to store a considerable amount of fuel as this adds a lot of weight and complexity.

To safely land a returning rocket, a rocket stage the size of a parachute is actually quite difficult, and it is even worse for the second and higher stages. If you’re using a flyback booster like SpaceX’s, you can drop the stage into the ocean with a parachute, but that will douse your engines in salt water and you’ll need to send a ship to pick up the whole thing.

However, if you have to recover them from traveling close to orbital speed, you’ll need serious heat shielding to avoid re-entry on top of all the difficulties of a very complex landing on it. Well in short all this is really what causes the SpaceX Raptor to be uploaded so often but Elon Musk is clearly not giving up on his chosen path let’s hope and see that he succeeds in his quest.