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"Apparently there is a car orbiting the earth" -E. Musk

PracticalMac

PracticalMac

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 22, 2009
2,857
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Houston, TX
It has been a very long time since I was last excited about space travel.
I would say since the death of X-33 program (85% assembled with 96% of the parts and the launch facility 100%) in 2001 I have not been confident of in the future.

Now Elon as succeeded in getting to space dirt cheep, and it will get better.
 
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If anyone would like to see what the Tesla and its passenger are looking like, (as well as some frequent, very cool shots of Earth in the background) Elon has kindly provided a live feed. No telling how long it will last as the car heads off to Mars orbit.

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mobilehaathi said:
How many times have his rockets blown up?
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A few times in the early days, not so many since they worked the bugs out of it. The main blowups "recently" have usually been when the boosters return to Earth and haven't landed correctly, but even that's becoming rare.
 
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Newton’s Apple said:
For what purpose it’s sent in the space???
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The first launch of such a complex rocket was highly likely to end in an earth-shattering kaboom, a shower of scrap metal (and a load of invaluable information as to what went wrong). Even by spaceflight standards, it would be too risky to launch anything "worthwhile" which would have cost a small fortune to build. Plus, there's the PR angle: even if you give a free launch to some enthusiast/charity/university project, there's no good way to spin it if it gets blown up.

However they needed something in the nose to simulate the weight of an actual satellite/spacecraft - and you have to admit that a sports car with a dummy astronaut, "Life on Mars" playing (if inaudibly) on the stereo and a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide... has more style than a concrete block. (Elon loses marks for forgetting the teapot, though).

...and, y'know, when the aliens finally stumble across the cinders of our solar system, what would you prefer them to find? A dull and worthy gold record containing some committee's idea of a sanitised representation of our diverse cultures - or a dummy in a sports car, and one of the books best-suited to convey the message "Hey, some of us actually realised how hilariously stupid our race was?"
 
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PracticalMac said:
It has been a very long time since I was last excited about space travel.
I would say since the death of X-33 program (85% assembled with 96% of the parts and the launch facility 100%) in 2001 I have not been confident of in the future.

Now Elon as succeeded in getting to space dirt cheep, and it will get better.
Click to expand...

Didn't this car overshoot the take off and is now unable to enter Mars orbit?
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mobilehaathi said:
A little defensive, eh?
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No, but he is making the point rockets are not easy.
 
jav6454 said:
Didn't this car overshoot the take off and is now unable to enter Mars orbit?
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The car was never meant to go into Mars orbit:

The Falcon Heavy will send the vehicle around the sun in an elliptical orbit that will extend farther than Mars' orbit.
https://www.space.com/39603-spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-by-the-numbers.html
​
Basically, they've shown that the rocket could put a spacecraft into an orbit that could take it to Mars (which is where the launch vehicle's job ends). An actual spacecraft would need to do stuff to put itself into Mars orbit when it got there - not to mention lots of irritating stuff about launch windows etc. that would really have distracted from the launch test.

Anyhow, if the car actually hits Mars then Elon had better have done a really good job of valeting that car, lest any as-yet-undiscovered Martian life should get wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a half-eaten chocolate bar left in the passenger glove compartment.

"We've discovered life.... oh, wait, no its just another one of Elon Musk skin flakes from behind the drivers seat of that darned Tesla..."

He's going to be in trouble anyway when aliens pick up the car, re-program its primitive AI and send it back to seek out its creator...
 
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I am concerned about this long-term.

As the driver ages, the likelihood he'll drive the Tesla through the front window of the space station increases exponentially. Hopefully they have good insurance!
 
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Yesterdays launch was Epic. I have not been so excited since watching Apollo 11 lift off from 39A. I almost stared crying from excitement when Bowie came on as the payload cover was ejected and Spaceman was in his Tesla with the Earth in the background. Then the simotaneous landing of the outer boosters in synchronization gave me goosebumps.

Tremendous respect to the Space X Team. :apple:
 
Watched launch live yesterday on a link on Ars Technica, it was epic, including the return of the boosters. He gave launch a 50/50 chance himself, but it all worked flawlessly. We are so used to watching NASA launches and rockets built by sub-contractors, it is amazing that a single, private American company with 6000 dedicated employees and an immigrant owner/CEO pulled this off. Like Jobs at Apple, it takes a CEO with an ego and a sense of humor to make it work. To the Space X team congrats on a job well done.
 
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