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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."
Month 13 is out of bounds
Load Donald Trump and the whole US Congress on the fucker. I'll push the button, let's go.
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.
With a few careful observations, you can begin to understand that the
heliocentric model is a lie, and you live on a flat plane.
Solar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/230976895
Corona not shaped in a spherical configuration; orients toward Earth. Corona lines can be observed to move faster than the speed of light. Light of the corona can be observed on the back of the moon. Light of the chromosphere can be observed on the back of the moon. Light of protuberences can be observed on the back of the moon. Sun and Moon same size and near. Wiki: Allais Effect
Lunar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/92378881
Irregular shadow shape, progression. Shadow is black, then changes color to reddish: Shadows don't change color. Moon glow of uneclipsed portion increases as shadow becomes reddish, detail lost. Moon has no rotation(see Nikola Tesla): we always see the same face. Moon emits own light. Craters not from impacts: Too round.
No model of the lunar eclipse correctly captures it:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/10/06/why-does-the-moon-turn-red-during-a-lunar-eclipse/
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/usa/scottsdale?iso=20140415
Next lunar eclipse: January 30/31, 2018 North America
please buckle Trump into the driver's seat before launch
If he drives it back to Earth with a parachute, it'd be like the opening!
.... God's way of telling you you have too much money.
No, using one of your company's $90m rocket to launch one of your other company's $100k dollar sports cars into orbit around another planet is a God's way of telling you you have too much money.
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;
Is worse than Hitler.
...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.
So Marvin the Martian is wealthy and is well up the reserve list for a Roadster? What's the Muskrat getting in return, an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator?
Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.
Would be nice if he could land the car safely onto the surface....
School is where the globe programming starts.
'Earth is round because ships over edge!' No, telecopes bring it right back. If they appear to go over an 'edge', it is just the high humidity at the water/air interface bleeding the image of the ship into images of water.
'Earth is round because the lunar eclipse!' Really? Watch a lunar eclipse and explain how Earth's shadow changes color!
And that's it. Those are the facts given to you for a round Earth. All the rest is a magician's craft.
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.
Thanks, Mr. Musk. Space really needed more junk flying around.
And that's it. Those are the facts given to you for a round Earth. All the rest is a magician's craft.
The problem with stupid people (like you). Is that they don't know they are stupid.
Having polluted orbits of Earth with useless shit since dawn of the space race, Mars is the next frontier for orbiting useless shit.
Ever notice they just talk about space junk, but don't really do anything about it or worry about it that much?
It isn't real! It is just part of the 'model', so they have to play make believe. Earth is flat.
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
#DeleteFacebook
He needs to have someone with the right stuff. I call Dibs!
I'm so glad that outer space in going to be privatized! Billionaires will have their space junk floating around for ages after we have thankfully passed!
There’s is a sucker born every minute. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt to milk money out of stupid people because Tesla and space ex are on the virge of bankruptcy.
... 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!)
By all means, Mr Musk, stick to the plan. Don't get insurance for the car. (They're a rip off anyway)
It all seems so innocent at first. A bit of hubris and a billionaire launching cars into space. But it is clearly a "rods from god" scheme where Musk can influence German subsidy policy with the threat of a flaming tesla wreaking havoc from space.
You apparently haven't ever used a telescope. Ships do not "disappear into the mist". You could do this every day from the same location watching a ship go over the horizon and it would disappear at the same time same place despite weather conditions (humidity, etc). Or are you saying the phenomenon of them "disappearing" into the mists is permanent and not dependent on weather conditions, and there's some aspect of the air that enforces the same disappearing distance? To further your experiment (warning: evil science! quick, back to youtube for a self affirming dose of videos) what happens if you watch the ship disappear then climb up a hill or tower and look at it? Will it be in the same location?
Just to makes sure there's no devilry or mind control from NASA at play here, station trusted sources on both the ship and ships in between the test barge to make sure everything is on the level. (Or not, pun intended)
I really wish Musk and his cheerleaders would give their heads a shake and realize that Musk has done precisely nothing to date to make the world a better place. Throwing garbage into space as an ego stroking stunt. Cool.
And really, that song. Could it be more trite?
is gaping space junk!
I wonder what kind of Auto Insurance Musk has...
His slaves at SpaceX might rebel and strap him to the rocket
A Tesla Roadster is about to become the fastest car ever made.
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.
The apparent horizon does vary by day, and even by hour in the same day. This is why people say 'on a good day, you can see to impossible_place'. Just to be clear, I am not talking about visible mists. The amount of humidity in the air just above the water surface is what I am talking about. It is the cause of disappearing ships.
And yes, if you increase your elevation, your view and how far you see will improve, because the light that is coming to you at the higher elevation spends much less time in the most humid part of the water/air interface.
Just because the Earth is flat, does not mean the air is infinitely pure.
The lower part of the ship disappears first because the humidity in the water/air interface blurs it into water first.
The stick experiment requires you to assume either the Earth is round, or the Earth is flat. So, it can tell you what a distance would be in one model or the other. Further, it requires you to assume that the physical existence is unaltered between you and the heavenly bodies; this is an assumption. Many models have a dome, which could have light bending capabilities. No, you should measure the Earth, not the heavens. Curves over water, movement in gyroscopes, etc.
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?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Doc Brown would be impressed.
at least there will be something to drive when humans finally get there.
Gravity doesn't exist. The universe and everything in it, is growing at an ever accelerating rate. We're being accelerated up.
Now the question is how the truck will be arranged in the fairing? And then will it survive the vibration tests?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
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.
Caution: Contents under pressure
An average person would have to work for years to buy that car (without eating while doing so). He will flaunt its destruction only to have people talk about him on twitter.
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.
They already have a battery
No, the Earth is stationary.
Gravity, however, is not what you've been told. Allais Effect.
Didn't Top Gear already so this?
He'd blast himself to a psychiatrist and some thorazine. He isn't just a loony prick, but an arrogant prick, too. I stopped taking him seriously long ago, he isn't a genius, he isn't particularly insightful, and definitely *is* sad excuse for a leader in his field. Whatever, dude.
For reference, this will let you know where the missions landed. Viking 1 is close to the equator and 2 is about half way to the pole.
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).
This of course ignores the lack of atmosphere, water and being bombarded by radiation. Other than that - "nice".
So is it time to change Russel's teapot to Musk's roadster?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I remember some kind of rocket powered car cruising through space in the movie Heavy Metal ...
Ok, he committed to the car... So strip it down and use it for a container.. Send things that, should the payload make it... be of use to or in the future. Off the top of my head...
Containers of water, lead or other elemental/usefuls.
Literature/science if the pages could be preserved indefinitely(time capsule).
Wheat/food can be preserved and used for 1000's of years can it not?(They managed to sprout some wheat from ancient Egypt I recall).
Personally I hope he allows a human on board one of the earlier flights to Mars. A volunteer for a 1 way trip. I'd do it, just for the novelty of possibly being the first(gotta die sometime). First man on Mars survived X days/months(with successful resupplies??); Maybe long enough to assemble/expand some (useful for the future) structures.
Oh how I wish a real businessman was in office instead of our current president.
not content with littering this planet to death with their consumerism , now they want to start in on the rest of creation.
Launch a bunch of ice and make a new artificial comet.
Elon Musk admits he made up the story about launching a roadster to mars.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/...
to launch junk in to space. God knows there is enough of it already up there.
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.
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.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
You learn each time, that's how we get there!
Did you expect perfection the first time? I mean, really?
Falcon 9 payload to Mars is 4020kg.
Tesla Model S P100D is 2250kg.
Roadster 2020 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.
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.
Heavy Metal.....
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?
... if you like my ride!
(Falcon 9 bumpersticker)
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
He's now saying he "totally made that up".
Of course, this may be a double-fake. Just because he made it up doesn't mean he isn't doing it anyway.
I just want to see him drive it down from orbit, like in the opening of Heavy Metal.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Heavy metal! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMPe3wF9jQ
http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/small-bodies/the-path-of-omuamua.html
Omuamua has such an unusual shape (approximately 10x as long as it is wide), that many astronomers have joked that it could be a rocket.
It is the only "asteroid" ever discovered which is so much longer than wide.
It would be extremely interesting to send a probe to take a closer look at Omuamua, just in case...
Elon Musk told us he was sending a car to space, then said he totally made it up
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Well written. Simple query to follow: If space is fake, then what's out there?
And the NBC Execs chasing the Enterprise is an old Chevy (Including Chevy Chase) to cancel the show on Saturday Night Live.
We have (a little) Prior Art here..
Oh Elon.. how Un-original..
Gravity, like the ability to have friends, is an illusion perpetrated on the weak minded by the biased liberal media elite. #SadAndAngryAndAlwaysAlone
courtesy of Elon Musk
Perhaps it's going to be sitting in orbit, so that when a facility is established on Mars, the administrator will have a really nice car, and will only need to develop a way to deorbit it?
The idea and support for a round earth is much older than that.
In a million years when the aliens come, they find no sign of life in the solar system, but they find a car in orbit around the fourth planet, and say "da fuck"?
/ #FellsGoodBeingCommunist.
Launch this payload to Mars require precise course correction and perhaps a thrust to slow it down so it will orbit Mars. Is he willing to waste the money on that? The smart Thang to Do would launch in a solar orbit that crosses Mars orbit but avoids it in the Z axis. Unless you want to lithobrake in the future.
If he wants to send a silly payload, he should make an enormous inflatable Russel's Teapot in orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Big enough to be seen from a terrestrial telescope.
On a purely selfish note, I'd prefer that Elon give the Roadster to ME. (He could have my beloved little Mitsu Eclipse in exchange if he insisted.)
Still, there's something fascinating about the thought of that little red Roadster, tucked neatly into a cargo container of some sort on the top of all that howling blazing power ... and "Space Oddity" blasting away in orbit. Although there'd be no one to hear it, presumably. And no air to carry the sound.
And the thought that, someday, someone will bring it back again. The ultimate "garage find" :-)
For bonus points he should attached a solar panel to the car to keep the batteries charged, put a camera in it and the ability to transmit signal.
As most people know, just about everything on the Tesla can be controlled remotely. Now I know the range to earth would be no good. However if they put it into orbit, and eventually years later, get another spacecraft there to relay commands.... They could potentially start the engine, turn on the radio (well play music anyway, reception might be a bit spotty on Mars), flash the lights, etc... Maybe with some careful use of the window washer fluid, alter the cars rotation or something. Anyway a secondary and even more hilarious PR stunt... Though I guess without air music wouldn't work, and without satellites the GPS wouldn't either. Anyway simply having it flash it's high-beams at the arriving spaceship would be kind of funny... For even extra credit, don't tell anyone you're going to do it and see the reaction!
It's all Intelligent Falling, according to the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes