Elon Musk Really Is Turning into Iron Man

Elon Musk revealed that he's figured out how to design rocket parts with a flick of the wrist, the squeeze of a palm — and one 3D printer that spits out metal alloy. At this pace, we will be seeing Mr. Musk battle the Mandarin in a couple of years.

Elon Musk revealed that he's figured out how to design rocket parts with a flick of the wrist, the squeeze of a palm — and one 3D printer that spits out metal alloy. At this pace, we will be seeing Mr. Musk battle the Mandarin in a couple of years.

Musk released this video on Thursday, making good on his promise from last month that he was would be to "design rocket parts just with hand movements through the air." You can see that Mr. Musk wasn't bluffing:

And here's more of the same, in GIF form:

"If you can just go in there and do what you need to do ... as opposed to figure out how to make the computer make it work, then you can achieve a lot more in a lot shorter period of time," Musk says, then proceeding to discuss innovations like the ominous-sounding Oculus Rift virtual reality machine. And then Musk jumped in an iron suit and rescued the world showed off some other fancy doodads, like his laser-metal 3D printer and a free-standing glass projection.

You're probably thinking this looks a lot like Iron Man. You wouldn't be wrong:

But back to the rocket parts. Musk says all this razzle-dazzle actually does make his rocket-building easier. And unlike Robert Downey, Jr., he's doing it without special effects.