SpaceX Plans To Blast a Tesla Roadster Into Orbit Around Mars (arstechnica.com) 272
An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica:
Previously, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said he intends to launch the "silliest thing we can imagine" on the maiden launch of the Falcon Heavy. This is partly because the rocket is experimental -- there is a non-trivial chance the rocket will explode on the launch pad, or shortly after launch. It is also partly because Musk is a master showman who knows how to grab attention. On Friday evening, Musk tweeted what that payload would be -- his "midnight cherry Tesla Roadster."
And the car will be playing Space Oddity, by David Bowie; the song which begins, "Ground Control to Major Tom." Oh, and the powerful Falcon Heavy rocket will send the Tesla into orbit around Mars. "Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn't blow up on ascent," Musk added. Ars was able to confirm Friday night from a company source that this is definitely a legitimate payload. Earlier on Friday, Musk also said the Falcon Heavy launch would come "next month" from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, meaning in January.
"No private company has ever launched a spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit, let alone to another planet," according to the article, adding that SpaceX's new rocket "could play a major role in any plans the agency has to send humans to the Moon." In addition, Musk added on Twitter, "Red car for a red planet."
UPDATE (12/2/17): Saturday Elon Musk told The Verge that he "totally made it up" about sending a Tesla Roadster to Mars. Then in "multiple emails" to Ars Technica --- sent Saturday afternoon -- "Musk confirmed that this plan is, indeed, real."
And the car will be playing Space Oddity, by David Bowie; the song which begins, "Ground Control to Major Tom." Oh, and the powerful Falcon Heavy rocket will send the Tesla into orbit around Mars. "Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn't blow up on ascent," Musk added. Ars was able to confirm Friday night from a company source that this is definitely a legitimate payload. Earlier on Friday, Musk also said the Falcon Heavy launch would come "next month" from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, meaning in January.
"No private company has ever launched a spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit, let alone to another planet," according to the article, adding that SpaceX's new rocket "could play a major role in any plans the agency has to send humans to the Moon." In addition, Musk added on Twitter, "Red car for a red planet."
UPDATE (12/2/17): Saturday Elon Musk told The Verge that he "totally made it up" about sending a Tesla Roadster to Mars. Then in "multiple emails" to Ars Technica --- sent Saturday afternoon -- "Musk confirmed that this plan is, indeed, real."
Shipping to Mars (Score:2)
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I hear that if Musk misses orbit, and the roadster crashes into Mars, that the kaboom will be earth-shattering.
It's a free launch (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the first launch of the Falcon Heavy. They're not getting a paying customer until they can prove that the rocket works. That means they don't have any important payload, so why not pull a stunt like this?
Well, they will have to do some work to make sure any liquids or gasses in the vehicle don't cause explosions and mess up the test. Obviously they need to remove the valve stems on the tires, but they'll have to look at lots of other fluids and places where air is trapped to be sure it won't be a problem.
Of course, there are other things they could launch. Perhaps they could do a resupply to the ISS--one of the few launches where the cargo isn't as expensive as the launch. They could also stage some supplies for a future Mars mission in Mars orbit. But if doing something like that would delay the launch as they prepare the payload, it might not be worth it.
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I agree. There are lots of things that wouldn't cost that much, could be adapted to space storage fairly easily, and might turn out useful later on if it can be picked up from Mars orbit.
That would be comparatively low-yield with regard to PR, though.
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They could also stage some supplies for a future Mars mission in Mars orbit.
I strongly suspect the car isn't going into a Mars orbit. Rather, it's most likely going into a solar orbit that passes by Mars. A true Mars orbit would require an additional stage, and at this point not even Elon Musk is going to invest in that.
Re:It's a free launch (Score:5, Interesting)
The roadster is only about 1.4 tons of mass, so they should have plenty of leeway on the delta-v budget. Hell, that's not much more than the Curiosity rover weighed, and that was launched on an Atlas-V. I'm just curious if they'll do anything more with it, once they get there.
For instance, will they leave it attached to the second stage in Mars orbit, or detach it, leaving only the roadster in orbit? In that case, would they try to get some video of the car, with Mars in the background, as the booster floats away? (Pretty awesome PR stunt for Tesla...)
And what about the booster? Would they leave that in orbit too, or send it to burn up in the atmosphere? That could make for some cool imagery too.
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The roadster is only about 1.4 tons of mass, so they should have plenty of leeway on the delta-v budget.
Maybe, but the second stage uses kerosene as fuel, and it will be frozen solid by the time they get to Mars. Getting a video feed will be difficult due to large distances.
And what about the booster?
All three boosters should land back on Earth, if everything goes according to plan.
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the second stage uses kerosene as fuel, and it will be frozen solid by the time they get to Mars
I would assume they're going to need some kind of "3rd-stage" to enter Mars orbit, but the 2nd stage should be sufficient for trans-Mars-injection.
All three boosters should land back on Earth, if everything goes according to plan.
Sorry, I was using the word "booster" loosely to refer to whatever vehicle(s) they use to get from LEO to Mars orbit. (I was hoping that would be apparent from context... or maybe I was just too lazy to be specific.)
Getting a video feed will be difficult due to large distances.
I had thought of that too (again, too lazy to write clearly...) and I figure they could stash a few terabytes of storage inside the roadster (or in/o
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I would assume they're going to need some kind of "3rd-stage" to enter Mars orbit
Yes, but to develop a capable 3rd stage would probably cost hundreds of millions. This is just a stunt, not a serious project.
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Who said anything about "developing" a 3rd stage? This is just a PR stunt, after all... grab some spare parts and slap something together and hope it works when you get to Mars.
Or... Figure out some way to keep kerosene from freezing, perhaps with a fuel additive that doesn't cause too much "indigestion" in the Merlin engine.
Or... Perhaps they've been developing just such a vehicle for the last few years, and haven't told anyone about it yet.
Or... Buy whatever's available off the shelf, and figure out a way
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Yeah, just slap together a functioning third stage. How hard can it be ? It's not brain surgery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Gravity sling(s). Mar's moons have little mass, but Mars itself can do the heavy lifting. Orbital adjustments can be done with tiny burns. Good tests in any case.
Re:It's a free launch (Score:5, Insightful)
Since it's a free launch, they could have proposed academics to send whatever experiments they want to put into mars orbit for free, with no guarantee of success. I'm pretty sure a lot of professors would have loved to have students come up with a micro satellite design and build it as part of a project. It's sad if it blows up on launch, but it's not critical, and if it works, it's cool for the students and maybe you get interesting measurements as a byproduct.
As usual, it's PR winning against anything else that would have been more useful...
Re:It's a free launch (Score:5, Insightful)
a lot of professors would have loved to have students come up with a micro satellite design and build it as part of a project.
I suspect communication with Earth would be a huge problem, especially if the professor doesn't have access to the deep space network.
Re:It's a free launch (Score:4, Interesting)
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I honestly read that as "they could have proposed to send academics".
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I honestly read that as "they could have proposed to send academics".
Better start with lawyers, then :)
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I honestly read that as "they could have proposed to send academics".
Space junk is a big enough problem right now. Start sending academics up there, and the colonists will be saddled with restricted speech codes and HR departments that have the personality and powers of Louis Quatorze.
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That means they don't have any important payload
All the brains at SpaceX put together can't think of any thing useful, but expendable, to send to Mars orbit? If nothing else, send a payload of CubeSats and let some amateur people come up with ideas.
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I am afraid that complaining that Musk is pandering to the public because they are cretinous animals is too little too late.
The rot set in around the time that the mobile phone, social media and reality TV arrived and now Mr and Mrs Moron think that they should be running civilization. And oddly enough when they all get together and vote they do run civilization. We are moving out of the enlightenment and back into the dark ages again. Nationalism and fascism, anti-science, religious extremism and the retur
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Mr and Mrs Moron think that they should be running civilization. And oddly enough when they all get together and vote they do run civilization
Yeah, that's called 'democracy'? Maybe you've heard of it? Then you complain we're going back to the age of kings, when you just said democracy is stupid? WTF? How do you argue like this? I guess it must be early onset Alzheimer's.
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Democracy is great and all, but it has plenty of failure modes. Stupid people can democratically choose to do stupid things -- that's democracy, and it's also stupid.
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."
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But if doing something like that would delay the launch as they prepare the payload, it might not be worth it.
SpaceX are clearly half-expecting this launch to end in Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly - from which they will still learn a great deal - and don't want that to be seen as a failure. Any attempt to launch something useful means that someone is going to be disappointed, so better to launch some junk.
Besides, if you are launching supplies for a future space mission you do it properly or not at all - you don't want to fuck around and do it on the cheap because there's a 50% chance of it ending up in the Pacific
Re: It's a free launch (Score:2)
I think a shipping container full of donations would make a good payload. You could charge people $100/pound to put something in the shipping container. Even if there was a 90% chance of failure, I think you could find plenty of people who would pay to have something on a real rocket launch.
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An O2 tank the 'size' of a Tesla roadster 1 would weigh many many tons.
Obligatory modified quote (Score:2)
There is no more male idea in the history of the Universe, than "why don't we fly up to Mars and drive around - Jerry Seinfeld
Someday that car will be... (Score:5, Funny)
... the most valuable car in the solar system.
Assuming it is (still) in a âoeparkingâ orbit (ha ha) around Mars and assuming that Mankind survives and prospers enough to colonize Mars, thatâ(TM)ll be one heck of a collectors item!
It should be in mint(?) condition and, because itâ(TM)s electric, might actually work on planets without oxygen (the driver will need to wear a spacesuit of course).
Then again, if it put into a stable parking orbit and presumably not âoelostâ or abandoned, are there any salvage rights? Call in the space lawyers! (Be careful though, their fees are astronomical!)
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I'm pretty sure the batteries aren't rated for minus 125 degrees Celsius.
Premium (Score:2)
Bugatti? Eat your heart out. (Score:5, Funny)
A Tesla Roadster is about to become the fastest car ever made.
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We'll see. The lunar rovers might retain the title.
How to mount it? (Score:3)
Now the question is how the truck will be arranged in the fairing? And then will it survive the vibration tests?
Let's Clutter Up Another Planet (Score:2)
It's bad enough that we got NASA's junk now littering the Martian landscape, but now we have private individuals throwing junk cars up there.
Disrespectful (Score:2)
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Waste (Score:2)
What is sad is that 3000lbs of scientific experiments will not get done. Elon, if you want to practice heavy lifting, at least get some value out of it if it works. I thought you were smart. Smart people don't waste precious opportunities.
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3000 lbs of useful scientific experiments would easily cost as much as the rocket itself, cause extra scheduling grief, and have a very good chance of crashing in the ocean or exploding in the air.
Re:Waste (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you considered that the guy running the space launch company might have a better grasp of the logistics of what you're talking about than you?
-That this is an experimental launch and they're trying to minimize potential losses.
-Putting a Dragon capsule on top of it to send experiments to the ISS would be pointless because:
A. It would double the price of the launch.
B. part of the certification requirement for the government is for there to be a payload fairing on top of the rocket, and the capsule can't launch with one equipped.
C. The capsule is already volume constrained so it wouldn't be able to carry any more than a regular launch, thus failing to demonstrate the heavy-lift capability (If the car is going to Mars, it would be light, but will have a much higher velocity).
Or would you rather they wait a few years (decades?) for someone willing to build a heavy satellite that they don't mind losing?
What they're doing is not letting a precious opportunity not go to waste.
Where in any other test launch the payload would have been a block of metal mass simulator, they're doing something fun, something that will get people talking about space for decades, and some bonus advertising for his other company out of his own pocket.
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No not necessarily. How about run a competition either at the HS or college level where students compete for a slot on the shot. 3K pounds could run 30 100lb experiments and get kids super excited about space.
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What kind of college/HS kid is capable of designing a 100 lb probe that can operate in deep space, keep it solar panels aimed at the Sun, the parabolic dish aimed at the Earth, and can run autonomous experiments ? Oh, yeah, it needs to be ready to launch in a few months.
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I'm not sure where you're getting this 3000lb figure, I'm assuming it's based on the weight of the car, but that's supposed to be heading for Mars at a high velocity, the payload capacity for low earth orbit is quoted to be 63,800kg (140,660 lb).
And to 26,700kg (58,860 lb) to geostationary transfer orbit.
Anyway, that's a lot of experiments and a lot of people involved, so you'd like them to delay the launch of a rocket that's already late by quite a few years by another couple of years, until all that is so
What Elon hasn't told anyone is ... (Score:2)
Heavy Metal (Score:2)
Bullshit (Score:2)
Elon Musk admits he made up the story about launching a roadster to mars.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/... [theverge.com]
Should be Against the Law (Score:2)
I agree with those who say launch something useful.
So a tesla weights 1.4 tons, how about launching 1.4 tons of Ox, some type of fuel, Structural items, etc.
Why to use Heavy for Tesla to Mars? (Score:2)
Tesla Model S P100D is 2250kg. [wikipedia.org]
Roadster 2020 [wikipedia.org] will be a bit heavier but not twice as much. Falcon 9 has enough power to send the Roadster to Mars, Musk could choose some better demonstration of Falcon Heavy, such as sending a fleet of 5 Teslas.
Sterilization (Score:2)
Objects sent to Mars need to be COMPLETELY sterilized to avoid the chance of contaminating Mars with earth bacteria and possibly hiding any signs of independent development of life. I hope he doesn't actually do this stunt.
In any case, even with a high chance of failure, payload to mars could be used for scientific or engineering experiments. Maybe an experimental atmosphere -> fuel processor, or maybe even a hail Mary at a sample return mission.
Colin Chapman Would Be Proud (Score:3)
Nuts to Tesla, lets be clear that the first production car in space is going to be, for all intents and purposes, a Lotus. Even better, a Lotus modified such that it is even simpler (if heavier) and would actually be able to drive on Mars. Crap, I want to go to Mars with an electric Lotus Seven and a space suit. This is really setting off the fantasies. Can we put Audrey Hepburn in the passenger seat?
Honk (Score:2)
... if you like my ride!
(Falcon 9 bumpersticker)
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Oh so that's what he meant when he said the rocket would have an artificial intelligence autopilot!
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Re:People say cocaine is (Score:5, Insightful)
So, I clicked on the comments section thinking, "A private company launching the highest payload rocket since the Saturn V, with game-changing launch costs even without reuse, designed to land on barges and landing pads, and rather than risking a super-expensive satellite on the maiden launch, they're doing it in the most hilarious manner possible, at the CEO's expense? There's no way anyone is going to be turning this into a negative!"
Hello Slashdot. Thanks for finding new ways to disappoint.
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How we long for 1997, when we only wished stuff like this would happen.
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I was referring to the attitude on Slashdot.
Go back and read some of the comments on the stories about those things. Compare to this one.
Re:People say cocaine is (Score:5, Funny)
So, I clicked on the comments section thinking, "A private company launching the highest payload rocket since the Saturn V, with game-changing launch costs even without reuse, designed to land on barges and landing pads, and rather than risking a super-expensive satellite on the maiden launch, they're doing it in the most hilarious manner possible, at the CEO's expense? There's no way anyone is going to be turning this into a negative!"
Hello Slashdot. Thanks for finding new ways to disappoint.
You left out the biggest positive for Tesla: They can announce an option that increases your range by millions of miles on a single charge...
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A trip to Mars is like life. It's not the destination, but rather, the journey. The information we learn from building rockets and actually launching them is important for technological progress. Landing men on the moon was nothing. The process of getting them there, and the knowledge we gained as a result, was everything. "If people spent 10% the amount of time thinking about how to improve life on Earth and they do about living on Mars we would be better off" is a false dichotomy. Mars living is a t
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To establish some kind of colony on Mars, we would need to know how to recycle everything; air, water, materials, biological waste products. packaging, energy efficient mining and manufacturing. Figure out all of those there, and doing them here comes for free.
Re: People say cocaine is (Score:2)
That's not how technology works. You don't just "invent" something and then it's free everywhere in the universe. The ISS already has water and waste recycling but it is designed to work in LEO not 1G. So already the design is flawed. Then you have to look at cost. If it's $50k per kg for water cargo but $5k per kg for recycling then the recycler is a bargain. But if you try to sell water recycling to people in Mississippi for $5,000/kg your technology will be worthless.
The space industry has already solved
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I agree, going to Mars is a useless stunt. Developing cheap rockets is very useful. If SpaceX needs the Mars dream to get motivated to build cheap rockets, it's still a good deal.
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We aren't going to be able to live on Mars, ever.
Maybe so, but if we do at least we'll have a nice car to drive around. Maybe he'll send up a fancy boat on the next launch.
Re:People say cocaine is (Score:5, Insightful)
Is building a heavy launch vehicle an ego trip as well, according you you? Normally first launches like this have just a dummy load: bags of sand or whatever else can make up sufficient payload. If somebody wants to stretch the goals by adding a car to this dummy load and aiming for Mars in this first launch, I fail to see why that deserves so much grousing. Personally I think it is a waste of a perfectly fine car, but hey, he built the thing himself, and he seems to like to have fun with things like this, so who am I to judge him on that.
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Elon has seen 'Heavy Metal' one time too many. He's not going to be able to land the car on Mars and drive it around. (Cosmic rays are sure to have fucked the electronics by then.)
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Normally first launches like this have just a dummy load: bags of sand or whatever else can make up sufficient payload
That's not even true. Where do you people come up with this nonsense? For example: The very first Saturn V launch carried a full Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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There are about 5,000 people in Antarctica, despite it being an environment that will never be suitable for human habitation. Someday, perhaps next century, there will be a similar number of people on Mars for similar reasons.
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Antarctica has air and water, even food, a pleasant climate and is very accessible.
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a pleasant climate
Depends on the time of the year, and where you actually are.
And: you could say the same things about Mars. Around the equator it is actually quite nice.
Mars weather "quite nice" (Score:3)
Actual temperature measurements at the Viking landers' site range from 17.2 C (256.0 K; 1.0 F) to 107 C (166 K; 161 F). [wikipedia.org]
This of course ignores the lack of atmosphere, water and being bombarded by radiation. Other than that - "nice".
Re:Mars weather "quite nice" (Score:4, Interesting)
Temperatures are actually not that big a deal. In the same section you linked to is detailed climate data from the Gale crater. During the day average highs range from -23C to +4C over the year which is actually warmer than McMurdo. The difference is that because the atmosphere is so thin the temperature drops extremely quick at night all year long by around 70C. But for the same reason it doesn't actually chill much. Basically if you have any kind of heat reservoir you should be able to stay pretty close to the highs rather than the lows. Atmosphere and water sure, but we have managed to run the moon missions, Mir, ISS etc. in the vacuum of space. I think radiation is the wildcard here, can we find practical shielding to all those nasty cosmic rays.
Re:People say cocaine is (Score:4, Insightful)
f people spent 10% the amount of time thinking about how to improve life on Earth and they do about living on Mars we would be better off.
If your solution to a problem is "the people need to change", then it probably isn't much of a solution. A trip to Mars, on the other hand, is a straightforward engineering challenge that people have a shot at. Space nutters are not the dreamers, utopia on Earth nutters are. You CAN put people on Mars. Given high enough technology, they may even live there. And they will probably - eventually - fight with each other, because they are people.
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A trip to Mars, on the other hand, is a straightforward engineering challenge that people have a shot at
It's far from straightforward. Besides, even in the remotest fantasy that they could survive there, people will fuck it all up just the same.
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How is it far from straightforward? The goal is quite concrete. Failure is obvious. By "straightforward" I do not mean "easy", I mean easy to understand.
Far more straightforward than utopia on Earth, whatever that means.
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High speed trains? Everyone knows that humans would die from asphyxiation if they went faster than 20mph. Leave the high speed travel to the professional horsemen.
Re:People say cocaine is (Score:4, Insightful)
he would just seem to be firing off extremely expensive rockets for his own amusement
The primary goal is testing a heavy lift reusable rocket that can be used to bring heavy satellites in Earth orbit for profit. In order to test the rocket, he needs a cheap dummy payload. The only "amusement" part is using an old car instead of a bag of rocks. The rest of the plan is business.
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This could be the bursting of his bubble, which is nearing that point anyway.
Perhaps that is true for some folks, but only a small minority. I'd say most people barely even know that Musk exists, and most who do simply see him as an eccentric, geeky billionaire who builds cool toys for other rich people. (Kinda like Steve Jobs...) But even if he does "burst his bubble" with that minority of naysayers, the up-side of this kind of stunt, from a PR perspective, could be huge with the rest of the population.
This is the sort of stunt that gets you invited onto chat shows, where you'll ha
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$100k is like nothing compared to $90m. Since it's a test flight, they sure wouldn't want to carry a $90m payload as well. In these dimensions it really doesn't change anything whether your payload is a $100k car or a $100 block of steel. Except for the PR
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Space is big. One car doesn't make a "stunt laden dumping ground".
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...from gumming up the future space lanes of Mars. We already have a huge amount of space junk around our own planet. Do we really want to turn Mars into a publicity stunt laden dumping ground?
There's got to be a law against this somewhere...
Given that there is space junk already in orbit around mars I think you might have missed the boat with your fauxrage
Re:Someone stop this guy... (Score:5, Insightful)
>> Do we really want to turn Mars into a publicity stunt laden dumping ground?
Yes. Yes we do.
The only way an average Joe is ever going to get affordable commercial space travel is if the "Only governments can do spaceflight" meme dies a fiery death. Putting a Tesla around Mars is a fantastic way to light that pyre.
If the BFR delivers on its promise of dirt-cheap space travel we can tidy up after ourselves later.
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We already have a huge amount of space junk around our own planet. Do we really want to turn Mars into a publicity stunt laden dumping ground? There's got to be a law against this somewhere...
Space belongs to the people who are interested in exploring it. Nobody else gets to make laws there.
Re:Someone stop this guy... (Score:4, Insightful)
Boo hoo. The guy makes his own rocket, and his own car, and you're telling him he can't do with it whatever he wants ?
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No, downmod both the GPP & zilym's for idiocy.
The Tesla will not be in earth orbit. It won't even be in Mars orbit. No orbital insertion burn into Mars orbit is possible as there is no third stage & the FH second stage will have long since died. Thus it'll be in orbit around the sun in an orbit somewhere between the Earth and Mars with virtually no chance of becoming a problem -- any more than the hundreds of thousands of like sized asteroids that occupy that space.
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They are f-ing with you. Space is fake. The Earth is flat. The eclipses prove it. Try getting a gyroscope to show you the spinning of Earth.
"Dude! You need to get laid. Bad!" - Steve Stiffler
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I seriously hope you are either trolling or playing some sort of prank.
Re:School is where it starts (Score:4, Interesting)
If the earth would be flat than we would have sunrise for all at the same time. Or no sunrise at all (in the spotlight model). Furthermore, you can test the earth curvature when looking over the ocean. Do this from high enough altitude, use your best telescope and then try to see the Eifel tower from New York. Also you can follow ships and when the water is cold you can see that the first thing to go on any ship is the lower parts and the chimney/sail can be seen for a longer time.
There is also another experiment. Have a friend who lives south or north (1000 km at least) of your place. Build two tables and insert into this a stick upright. Then place one table at your home and one at his home. The table must be perfectly horizontal. Now you collect for half a year from highest to lowest position of the sun the angle between the sun and the surface. You can do this by measuring the length of the shadow and calculating the arc with acos((l_shadow + l_stick - sqrt(l_shadow + l_stick))/( 2 * l_shadow * l_stick)). With the two angles and the distance between you and your friend, you can calculate the distance of the sun in your flat earth model and subsequently its heights above the surface. According to flat earth idea, it should be always at approx. 4000 something km.
Also you can make this experiment as follows. Use a friend east of you (the farer away the better). Every day you see a sunrise, you write down the angle between ground and sun. And at the same time your friend takes a measurement (call him and synchronize your efforts). On a flat earth you should experience sunrise at the same time. On a spherical earth this will happen at different points in time. Anyway, for your flat model, the height of the sun should be the same.
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Very plausible explanations, if we were stuck with only 16th century theories and equipment. Maybe you should try convincing the Amish instead of a bunch of nerds?
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So, how can I see the lights of the towers at Logan? Searching for those heights I've found 350 feet to be the maximum structure there.
It depends on your elevation as well, and the local curvature of the earth in your area. If you are on a "peak" and Logan is on a "peak" with a valley in between, there is no local curvature and you can see straight-line distances. Ah, why am I bothering?
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See? You couldn't address my points so you moved on. We can get to Apollo later, but first let's settle why you can see Logan's lights.
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Well, he's putting it into a parking orbit around Mars for now. The first human Mars mission will rendezvous with the car, load it into the spaceship, and bring it down so they can drive around on the surface.
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In which case why not launch something useful? I realise he doesn't want to risk a commercial satellite but he could launch fuel. Or he could get a bunch of cube sats and put those into orbit, assuming the launch works.
Or he could talk to Robert Zubrin and ask him what's the best thing to launch to keep in reserve for a future Mars Direct like program given a) it's a free launch but b) there's a high risk of mission failure
Zubrin gave a memorable presentation here
The Case For Mars | Robert Zubrin [youtube.com]
I bet if yo
Re:Mars Roadster (Score:5, Insightful)
In which case why not launch something useful? I realise he doesn't want to risk a commercial satellite but he could launch fuel.
Pro tip: if you suspect that your launch vehicle stands a higher-than-usual chance of blowing up, don't launch stuff that is going to increase the blast radius or be unsuitable as a new artificial reef in the ocean off Florida.
Or he could get a bunch of cube sats and put those into orbit, assuming the launch works.
...but which will still leave a bunch of dissatisfied customers, sunk costs and bad publicity if it doesn't.
Even if this ends in a fireball, Musk wants to be able to present it as a "learning experience": try and launch anything useful and it looks like a failure.
Re:Mars Roadster (Score:5, Interesting)
I would send tanks of water. Harmless in a liftoff accident, very useful at Mars.
Re: (Score:2)
unless they put some of those cool spring metal wheels on it...
http://bgr.com/2017/11/26/nasa-airless-tire-no-flat/ [bgr.com]
Re: (Score:2)
If he drives it back to Earth with a parachute, it'd be like the opening!
You beat me to it, that was my first thought upon reading the summary. Gotta watch out for the Loc-Nar though.
Re: (Score:2)
THis is actually dangerous (Score:2)
I have another suggestion. Putting a roadster into orbit on any planet is going to fill up the orbit path with debris. It would be a much better idea to just crater it into mars.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
More directly, I see a house just across from me getting its electricity from space.