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Elon Musk Shows Off the Tesla Roadster That SpaceX Will Send Beyond Mars (theverge.com)
Elon Musk has released photos of the Tesla Roadster he plans to send to space via a Falcon Heavy rocket. "The series of photos, posted to Instagram, show the Roadster attached to a fitting and placed between the two halves of the payload fairing that caps the rocket," reports The Verge. "The photos were posted just hours after a picture leaked on Reddit that showed a grainy view of the car being readied for its final ride." From the report: This will be the inaugural flight of the Falcon Heavy, a rocket that SpaceX has been planning for years. The successor to the Falcon 9 , it's essentially (and simply put) three boosters strapped together, all of which will add enough thrust to make it the most powerful rocket in the world. It will give SpaceX the ability to send bigger payloads to space while also helping the company push farther out into the Solar System. But SpaceX doesn't want to put a valuable payload on the very first flight, which even Musk has admitted could end (or begin) with an explosion. So the company plans to use a "dummy payload" instead. "Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring," Musk wrote on Instagram today. "Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel."
Naturally with a chicken game like the space gas station in Leisure Suit Larry.
Of course, if the Heavy does not make it to orbit, the Roadster may end up swimming with the fishes (which might also be interesting).
...were clandestinely building a means to soft-land the car on its wheels on the planet. Even funnier if they landed it in the pathway of one of the rovers...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
It is rather iconic after all
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It certainly is not all him, but the carrier of the faith when it flies in the face of the beliefs of so many does carry a terrible burden.
It is OK to have a heart for the man. It is also OK to admire, no matter what you feel of his beliefs, anyone who exhibits the courage and conviction that this man has shown in the face of constant vicious, destructive, vile attacks on his character. Musk exhibits the best of the character of a dead age that made America the technological leader that it was.
I personally think it is precisely that reminder of when character, perseverance, and faith meant something that his detractors hate the most. He may yet go down with his ship, but he has been the consummate captain.
Phosgene makes us feel, too. Send up a few hundred tanks!!!
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I fully get why he is doing this. I just think that someone somewhere has a worthwhile payload that they have but they otherwise couldn't afford to pay to boost.
Worst case is a cache of supplies to park in Martian orbit for the next time Matt Damon is stuck there and the Home Depot he used last time is closed.
I hope the transmit real time from all cameras on the Roadster!
They should put on some kind or propellant tanks on the car, and launch it into space and target the moon.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
The fraction of Tesla's gross proceeds since it started that come from government "subsidies" - most of which are to encourage the advancement of electric vehicles, not to support Tesla - is very small, around 10% perhaps. The "subsidies" wouldn't even be discussed if they were only benefitting the established manufacturers. They don't come close to the historical and ongoing subsidies, both in dollars and lives, of the petrol-based infrastructure.
Moreover, whether or not Tesla survives, the subsidies have done their purpose. They have accelerated the switchover to electric cars by a decade or more. The established manufacturers would not be switching now if not for Tesla throwing a wrench into the works by proving that electric vehicles are viable with current technology. That is what is pissing the establishment off.
Tim S.
Needs more cowbell.
Get a lot of stuffed cows and put them into orbit.
Akin to his moon made of cheese, this can be the "Herd shot 'round the world".
AC
Like, stuffed animal cows, or like taxidermy cows? 'cause one wouldn't be enough mass and the other is a bit on the creepy side...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Compared what's normally launched in satellites I doubt that such materials would matter in the slightest, or if they do, then there are more fundamental problems.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Because his companies are developing new products that are accessible to the middle-class in many cases, and disrupt the traditional pricing models across the board?
Solar City was arguably the least innovative company of the bunch but a lot of people have achieved greater energy independence because of them. Sure, other companies do solar too, but the more players, the cheaper the prices.
Tesla Motors has shown that a car company can manufacture only electric cars and manage to move models. True, they may not be profitable yet, but not only have they managed to make sales, but they've managed to stir up enough interest that other automakers are now selling multiple models of electrics and plug-in hybrids that are primary-electric instead of primary-gasoline. They've also demonstrated that electric cars can be cool looking, they don't have to be dorky like so many production vehicles have been. Tesla's influence has undoubtedly shifted the market on vehicles even if Tesla themselves doesn't survive.
SpaceX may not be accessible to the average person, but they've managed to create a paradigm shift in rocketry to the point that competitors that don't follow suit and manage to make relaunchable rockets won't be in the industry anymore. Think about it, even the price of a first-flight rocket launch will be far less if the launch company expects to land and reuse the rocket, and so far SpaceX has not had a launch failure of a used rocket in-flight. So far all payloads that saw T=0 have made it to orbit on used rockets, and I fully expect flights with used rockets to cost less than those with new ones. Access to space, formerly the purview of nations and of megacorporations, suddenly becomes accessible to smaller corporations and even to public nonprofits. Groups with ideas for space science or space settlement might actually be able to afford to test their ideas without having to convince a government agency to fund them, and science into multiple directions of research may yield unexpected positive results.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Like, stuffed animal cows, or like taxidermy cows? 'cause one wouldn't be enough mass and the other is a bit on the creepy side...
The herd shot round the world ...
I am a Statistician. One false move and you are a Statistic
Asteroids.
Solar orbit's already filled with more junk than SpaceX will ever launch, and most of it's gone millions to billions of years without encountering anything else. It's not crowded out there.
I'd hope if they could land on Mars, that that would at least do the landing like the Corvette in Heavy Metal.
I'm sure Musk could come up with a Loc-Nar somewhere... :)
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Very cool, but I thought they specifically chose payloads like brick or concrete because they don't shift around much and cause undo motion inside the rocket.? Can't imagine a car would be a good idea but I think it's funny
Why the HE double hockey sticks would you send a car into outer space. This is the dumbest idea ever.
This is the dumbest possible thing that they could do. They need some cheap mass on their rocket; and this mass might be able to get into Martian orbit.
They should send a couple thousand pounds of water. The containers to store it are are already 'off the shelf' inasmuch as we already are capable of rapidly producing a flight-tested design for holding water in space for a long period of time. And by chance if the thing makes it, a large quantity of water floating around mars would be an incredibly valuable and useful commodity
And to all who post that he could shoot up something more valuable, like a university science project - did you read that they usually do these tests with blocks of cement or such? You just never complained about that because it wasn't on /.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The Telsa Roadster mass is about 1400 kg, isn't it ? This seems way too light for a payload simulator. The mass of the Soyouz is above 7000 kg, a loaded Dragon is about 10000 kg, and the Orion is close to 25000 kg !
So this only makes sense if they also add a "boring" (but useful) dummy payload along it.
Nothing I've seen so far indicates the Falcon Heavy will replace the Falcon 9. A Falcon Heavy is far too large for most payloads: a Falcon 9 can launch most payloads and still have enough margin to land the first stage (and soon, the fairing).
FH will be used for those payloads that an F9 could only launch in expendable mode. There might be some US military/national security payloads that are too heavy for F9 altogether. Plus the occasional interplanetary mission, perhaps.
Justifying an accident when such an irrelevant frivolity is involved would be quite difficult.
I don't see why justifying an accident with a block of concrete would be any easier. In both cases, it's a setback, and you lose the rocket. The value of the car is peanuts.
I'm impressed with what you said. I agree with "courage and conviction" and "character, perseverance, and faith".
I haven't seen "constant vicious, destructive, vile attacks on his character". I have seen people evaluate his chances based on the idea that he is an average person, and an average person would fail at what he attempts.
I hope that Elon Musk will be especially caring toward himself. Sometimes I get the impression he pushes himself too much.
There are evident differences in mass, weight distribution (inertial mass, reactions to turbulent conditions, stability, etc.) and even price between a car and a block of concrete. On the other hand, I am honestly not sure about how using any of these objects is really affecting the rocket setup. In principle, it seems quite sensible to assume that the car option would required an important adaptation (+ provoke not properly tested conditions). In case that both alternatives behaved similarly, my previous comment would logically not be applicable.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
-1 Overrated! Same thing yesterday when I wrote another not-blindly-appraising post to an Elon-related article! You can say whatever you want about the Elon's army, but at least they act consistently! LOL.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
It should be pointed out that these subsidies were in place well before Tesla existed as a company and were intended to encourage companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler (as well as foreign companies) to try an invest in "green" automobiles. If the government is pouring so much money around that it is raining cash everywhere, you would be an idiot if you didn't pick up a bucket and start collecting that cash where it might do some good.
It also turns out that even with those subsidies they did almost no good. General Motors made the infamous EV-1 that turned out to be so expensive they wouldn't even offer the vehicles to be sold. The purpose of that vehicle really was to kill the subsidy and to in particular get the California Air Resources Board (the California equivalent to the EPA but operating at the state level) to stop making electric automobiles any sort of big deal. I guess that blew up really well.
Other automobile companies have tried to take advantage of those same subsidies. GM started the Volt literally right as it was going bankrupt and that was the only vehicle which survived the bankruptcy as a major engineering project. The Fisker Karma was actually built depending almost exclusively on those subsidies, and of course you have the Nissan Leaf.
If Tesla is able to make a business case for electric automobiles, I would dare say it is in spite of those subsidies instead of because of them. Yes, a thumb is on the scale in Tesla's favor, but they weren't really enough to make other companies profitable and there have been some spectacular failures and bankruptcies resulting from people other than Elon Musk trying to grab that same cash.
I also don't think the switch to electric automobiles is necessarily inevitable either. There are other "alternative fuel" sources which in theory could work out better as well. What makes electric vehicles work isn't the subsidies, but rather the energy density due to somewhat recent developments in energy storage technologies (aka batteries). It is also interesting that Tesla is now putting some significant money into basic R&D for that technology too and not simply waiting for some other company to come up with the next best thing.
Having the ashes of James Doohan (yes.... Mr. Scott from Star Trek) scattered all over the South Pacific instead of in space due to mishaps and rocket failures is not the kind of publicity anybody wants. That is precisely what happened with the Falcon 1.
What testing would a Tesla Roadster need to go through that hasn't been already done by the U.S. Department of Transportation, given that the vehicle has already a mountain of test data simply to put the vehicle into serial production?
It would be far more expensive to certify a block of concrete than to take a vehicle which already has the data needed for evaluation available. It isn't like this is the first automobile that the FAA has needed to certify for flight worthiness before.
From the point of view of being inside a rocket, most of tests done to that car are pretty much irrelevant. It has a very complex geometry and distribution of masses/densities/materials; there are lots of moving/easily removable parts; it is difficult to be kept perfectly balanced; etc. Nothing of this applies to a regular simple shape (e.g., a cube) made of cement or any other material.
I don't think that this or any other car has ever passed through tests analysing its behaviour under as demanding conditions as the ones associated with being launched inside a rocket; and certainly not from the rocket perspective, what really matters here. Or you can see it in other way if you wish: 1000 kg of steel are identical to 1000 kg of cement from the static/weight point of view; but it is impossible to tell how similar/different both objects are from the dynamic perspective unless geometries, mass/density distributions, etc. are brought into account.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
Yes. But cars are not rated for the same mechanical environments (shocks, vibrations) as satellites. They are designed (and tested) not to come apart during launch.
There's nothing stopping them putting the Tesla on the shake table for vibration testing. I do expect that they've had to make modifications. Stripping out or draining/purging things like the brake system, applying copious amounts of epoxy and the occasional weld to fix things in place, etc.
Get a lot of stuffed cows and put them into orbit.
Just to be clear that would be the female of the species, because if it were male cattle then that would be a payload of bull.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
100 million miles on one tank of gas!