Space Tesla may crash into Earth

REMEMBER the Telsa Roadster that Elon Musk launched into space last week? Well, three scientists just took a close look at the vehicle’s orbit over the next million years, and they found there is a slight chance the car might crash into Earth or Venus.

Don’t panic. The chance is pretty small – somewhere around 6 percent for Earth and 2.5 percent for Venus. And a million years is a very long time – our species has only been around for about a fifth of that span. There’s plenty of room for civilisation-ending catastrophes to occur long before the Tesla reenters Earth’s atmosphere.

Besides, the car would likely burn up before reaching the surface.

The results, due to be published in the

were posted this week on the preprint site arXiv.

The Tesla was launched into space February 6 atop SpaceX’s vaunted Falcon Heavy rocket, its only passenger a spacesuit-wearing mannequin named “Starman”.

Study authors Hanno Rein, Daniel Tamayo and David Vokrouhlický, all experts in orbital dynamics, emphasise that it’s impossible to map out precisely where Starman will go as his vehicle floats through space.

By running many simulations the scientists can conclude that the car’s “dynamical lifetime” will probably be a few tens of millions of years.

But aerospace engineer Ben Pearson, creator of the site WhereisRoadster.com, noted that the car had already exceeded its 36,000-mile warranty 511 times as of Friday morning. Let’s hope Starman has good insurance.