Car in deep space trouble
Elon, we have a problem. The car that Elon Musk’s SpaceX shot into space has overshot its target and is now rocketing towards the asteroid belt beyond Mars’ orbit.
ELON, we have a problem.
The car that Elon Musk’s SpaceX shot into space has overshot its target and is now rocketing towards the asteroid belt beyond Mars’ orbit.
The flamboyant billionaire pulled off a coup when he successfully fired the privately funded Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket to leave Earth since the Apollo missions of the 1970s, into space from Florida.
The rocket released a red electric convertible sports car, the Tesla Roadster, carrying a mannequin in a space suit dubbed “Starman”, after the David Bowie song.
The car was only meant to reach as far as Mars with the plan that it would come close to the planet without colliding. There were hopes Starman could drive for a billion years as it entered an orbit around the sun.
But Mr Musk tweeted yesterday that the Roadster had exceeded the Mars orbit and continued towards the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a more distant trajectory than anticipated, almost reaching the orbit of dwarf planet Ceres.
Even if the vehicle miraculously manages to make it through the asteroids intact, the real danger for the car is that its plastic and carbonfibre body will be torn apart by the harsh radiation of the sun and cosmic rays.
Images of the car cruising through space have been met with wonder. “I think it looks so ridiculous and impossible,” Mr Musk said after the launch.