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Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

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Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#11

Post by Cshelton »

It’s perfect if you think about it. They need weight for the launch, but why use expensive equipment when the odds are high it won’t even leave Earth atmosphere. It’s a massive PR stunt, I mean, what other car company has a car just orbiting Mars casually... and yeah, I guess a large orbit around Mars would just keep orbiting for a Billion years haha.

25 years from now: Did we get station five’s orbit around Mars set yet? No sir, we had to move it because Elon’s damn car was orbiting too close to us... dammit Elon

Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#12

Post by Cshelton »

sorahn wrote: post #7
gpm wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlikely to even arrive on mars, typically we need to make course adjustments en route and a car doesn't exactly have thrusters. Hence the comment in the tweet about being in deep space for a billion years or so.

He said the destination is “mars orbit”. So if it gets there, it should be hanging out waiting for humanity to get there. I wonder how long the battery pack on the tesla will run the radio.

But! The underbelly of the car would be a solar panel =p Crank the radio up to 11! (Which is funny because Tesla’s volume actually goes to 11)

So actually, they'd for sure have to disable the heater on the battery, and I dunno, can the battery operate enough power to power the stereo when it's negative crazy low temp in space?

Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#14

Post by justinator »

Cshelton wrote: post #11

It’s perfect if you think about it. They need weight for the launch, but why use expensive equipment when the odds are high it won’t even leave Earth atmosphere. It’s a massive PR stunt, I mean, what other car company has a car just orbiting Mars casually... and yeah, I guess a large orbit around Mars would just keep orbiting for a Billion years haha. 25 years from now: Did we get station five’s orbit around Mars set…

How about use the weight/space as an orbiting time capsule put together by elementary students to help them be interested in space/science/math/engineering/etc?

I still remember those packets of tomato seeds we received in like 6th grade whose past generations where in Earth's oribit for a few years. Like, they're just tomato seeds, but we spent a few classes talking about them, growing tomatoes, etc.

:shrug:

Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#15

Post by kijin »

justinator wrote: post #14
Cshelton wrote: post #11

It’s perfect if you think about it. They need weight for the launch, but why use expensive equipment when the odds are high it won’t even leave Earth atmosphere. It’s a massive PR stunt, I mean, what other car company has a car just orbiting Mars casually... and yeah, I guess a large orbit around Mars would just keep orbiting for a Billion years haha. 25 years from now: Did we get station five’s orbit around Mars set…

How about use the weight/space as an orbiting time capsule put together by elementary students to help them be interested in space/science/math/engineering/etc? I still remember those packets of tomato seeds we received in like 6th grade whose past generations where in Earth's oribit for a few years. Like, they're just tomato seeds, but we spent a few classes talking about them, growing tomatoes, etc. :shrug:

That's way too risky for a brand-new rocket that might not even leave the atmosphere. All those children will be so disappointed if their time capsule blows up on the launch pad. A car, on the hand... they crash all the time anyway. No big deal.

Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#16

Post by Cshelton »

justinator wrote: post #14
Cshelton wrote: post #11

It’s perfect if you think about it. They need weight for the launch, but why use expensive equipment when the odds are high it won’t even leave Earth atmosphere. It’s a massive PR stunt, I mean, what other car company has a car just orbiting Mars casually... and yeah, I guess a large orbit around Mars would just keep orbiting for a Billion years haha. 25 years from now: Did we get station five’s orbit around Mars set…

How about use the weight/space as an orbiting time capsule put together by elementary students to help them be interested in space/science/math/engineering/etc? I still remember those packets of tomato seeds we received in like 6th grade whose past generations where in Earth's oribit for a few years. Like, they're just tomato seeds, but we spent a few classes talking about them, growing tomatoes, etc. :shrug:

I mean, I guess we can throw some stuff in the trunk... and the frunk too ;p

Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#17

Post by kijin »

wallace_f wrote: post #13

Anyone know what would be the oppprtubity cost they're foregoing of just putting fuel, oxygen up there? Would it be expensive to retrieve it in orbit?

You really, really don't want to put fuel and oxidizer where they don't belong.

If you run fuel lines to the cargo compartment and something goes wrong with the mission halfway to Mars, it would be much more difficult to figure out whether the incident was caused by a fault in the rocket's design or by the one-off modifications.

Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#18

Post by letlambda »

gpm wrote: post #5
dpflan wrote: post #3

Fully charged and ready to drive upon arrival? :)

Unlikely to even arrive on mars, typically we need to make course adjustments en route and a car doesn't exactly have thrusters. Hence the comment in the tweet about being in deep space for a billion years or so.

If they're planning on Mars orbit, and not a Mars flyby there's a propulsion system.

edit: Unless by Mars orbit, he means, a solar orbit similar to the orbit of Mars. Which actually probably is what he means. It's just the right blend of technically correct, but slightly misleading.

Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#19

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

Cshelton wrote: post #16
justinator wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about use the weight/space as an orbiting time capsule put together by elementary students to help them be interested in space/science/math/engineering/etc? I still remember those packets of tomato seeds we received in like 6th grade whose past generations where in Earth's oribit for a few years. Like, they're just tomato seeds, but we spent a few classes talking about them, growing tomatoes, etc. :shrug:

I mean, I guess we can throw some stuff in the trunk... and the frunk too ;p

And the glove compartment.

Re: Elon Musk: Falcon Heavy's first payload will be my Tesla Roadster to Mars

#20

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

kijin wrote: post #15
justinator wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about use the weight/space as an orbiting time capsule put together by elementary students to help them be interested in space/science/math/engineering/etc? I still remember those packets of tomato seeds we received in like 6th grade whose past generations where in Earth's oribit for a few years. Like, they're just tomato seeds, but we spent a few classes talking about them, growing tomatoes, etc. :shrug:

That's way too risky for a brand-new rocket that might not even leave the atmosphere. All those children will be so disappointed if their time capsule blows up on the launch pad. A car, on the hand... they crash all the time anyway. No big deal.

Why?

At this point anything you put in a time capsule is going to be digitally reproduced a million times over anyway.

There's not a massive distance between "my poem is on a usb drive orbiting mars" and "my poem got blown up when the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy accidentally flew into the sun" they're both equally interesting stories to tell at dinner parties, which is their whole utility.

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