Starman Heading To Mars In His Tesla

I looked for a satellite view to see what could match the on seen when the fairings were removed - here's what I found:

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
The tires must be solid, otherwise I would expect them to blow.

No need. Sea level pressure on Earth is almost 15 psi. Tires are pumped-up to ~35 psi. Drop the tire pressure to 20 psi, then launch it into space. The pressure difference is right back to its nominal 35 psi.

Mind you, they might have simply deflated the tires, and possibly drained the gas tank, oil system, radiator, etc. prior to launch to make the payload as "inert" as possible, or maybe not.

Same with a lot of other things.

Must be a very special Tesla! Very special indeed!

Only according to the 1st law of real estate: Location, location, location.

Elon said it was just stock. I would imagine that over time the leather would dry-out and split, the rubber of the tires will dry-rot and unfiltered ultraviolet from the Sun will break-down exposed plastics/nylon. However, all this will take time. One thing that helps is that it is sort of tumbling in the sunlight. This will keep the temperatures equalized over time and prevent thermal expansion & contraction.

I had another look at the image I posted earlier and did some perspective warping of the SpaceX image - this is the result:



Puts the viewpoint of the car exactly where you'd expect launching from the Cape a few minutes earlier

Too bad it missed getting into Mars-Sun orbit and ended up headed into the asteroid belt. Might need some body work in the future.

a reply to: roadgravel

In 10,000ish years, it'll leave the solar system, and eventually come back connected to a giant AI, trying to meet its creator.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It will demand Elon Musk and will destroy us unless we offer a clone of him to it.
All hail the great Tesla roadster AI.

Like that rubbish Star Trek movie with the whales but this time it is Elon Musk.

The circle is complete!

a reply to: Saint Exupery


No gas tank to drain - its all electric!

a reply to: oldcarpy

D'OH!!!!!

ying to save face>

I wonder if the batteries have water in them?

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wouldn't be surprised. Or it returns with a crap load of tickets for breaking space traffic laws.

If aliens didn't ever create cars, could be Voyager doesn't get the aliens attention but a nice car does.

However, the mass of most rockets are more than 95% fuel. Building bigger rockets with bigger payloads means more fuel is used for each launch. The current fuel for Falcon Heavy is RP-1 (a refined kerosene) and liquid oxygen, which creates a lot of carbon dioxide when burnt.

The amount of kerosene in three Falcon 9 rockets is roughly 440 tonnes and RP-1 has a 34% carbon content. This amount of carbon is a drop in the ocean compared to global industrial emissions as a whole, but if the SpaceX's plan for a rocket launch every two weeks comes to fruition, this amount of carbon (approximately 4,000 tonnes per year) will rapidly become a bigger problem.

phys.org - SpaceX stages an amazing launch – but what about the environmental impact?

The space suit Starman had on was functional! That is the design they came up with for future launches maybe even Mars (same source).

They also point out, if the car was not made in a clean room, it is probably covered in earth micro-organisms which are now headed for the asteroid belt. An asteroid pulls out in front of Starman going left without its blinkers on, then ??? Where do the microbes go?

Did we just seed other planets by tossing a dirty car into the asteroid belt?

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

3.8 billions years ago earth life got kick started by an aliens cars dirty footmats hehe )

a reply to: suicideeddie

Gives a new definition to...

panspermia!!

TA-DAH!!

ngchunter used a 0.7m telescope to capture this footage of Tesla and Starman in deep space, already beyond the orbit of the Moon:


www.youtube.com...

Using a 0.7 meter telescope in Australia on iTelescope.net I was able to spot Elon's Tesla roadster still attached to the second stage of Falcon Heavy. According to the resulting orbit, I calculated its distance to be about 1.8 times the distance to the moon when the pictures were taken.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

I watched this today, pretty cool. Tesla made it to space and the only name that deserves the honor.

originally posted by: Saint Exupery

The circle is complete!

Love this!