Breaking News ... Don’t Panic
 

Elon Musk’s alter ego and his personal Tesla roadster are now in Earh orbit .... heading to Mars! :D

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I've got to be honest, I fail to see the point in such an exercise. Perhaps because I found physical cosmology dreadfully boring in undergrad, but I've never gotten that excited over anything Spacex has done.

What exactly is Mr. Musk trying to prove here?

I never thought I’d see a car in space! LOL. This was a test to prove out the heavy lift rocket systems, the first launch. He said instead of putting a load of concrete in the cargo area which was boring, he wanted to have a little fun with it, so he actually installed his personal Tesla (not to mention his company manufactures Tesla’s) and now his ego will be fed in perpetuity. This thing is going to orbit the Sun and Mars for thousands of years.

The heavy lift rocket system will ultimately send humans to Mars and beyond. It’s a private company. He’s doing this because he can.

Take me with you!

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1517980988

Basically they needed a simulated load to put in their new heavy lift rocket for testing. This new rocket allows for larger satellites, station components or trans-planetary spacecraft to be pulled out of the gravity well. Honestly if this was NASA it likely would of been a fancy lump of concrete....which is kinda boring even though it does the job.
Elon knew there was a 50/50 that this rocket on its first launch was either going to blow up on the pad or it was going to make it to space, so if it was going to make it, why not stuff something stupid inside as the test load? Why not his car?

Also SpaceX is a private company, unlike NASA which just needs to keep congress happy. Being able to not only launch the largest rocket since the Saturn V (and cost 1/10 that of the competitors rocket) AND doing so with the boss's car inside is an amazing PR stunt which also shows confidence to the investors which Elon needs for the BFR project.
To scale just how publicized this was, the youtube stream at one point had nearly two million active watchers and EVERY radio and TV station around here after the launch was talking about it.

Those pictures remind me of the Corvette in space scene in the 1970s animated movie "Heavy Metal" .....

He's sending it to Mars so he'll have something to drive when he gets there.

Mars rover 2.0 complete with software glitches and needless government funding.

They needed to bring some bacon up there to become an honorary muppet (Pigs in SPACE, space, space). :D

They fired the third stage last night. They had doubts they were going to have the fuel or power to place it into a Mars orbit so they ran the tank to empty. It's going to fly around mars, come back past earth and then be flung out of our solar system as it uses the planet as a gravitiational slingshot.

It's going to be interesting. In two other directions you have Voyager 1 and 2 with its golden records and the hard work of some of finest science the engineers of a generation could assemble......then you go the other way and you have a sports car with a space suit in the drivers seat. :scratch2:

Wonder if its heavily insured in case it broadsides a UFO??? :D

SR

I usually think of our spacefaring technology as kind of... primitive. But I suppose it does speak something about any technology, when it has advanced far enough to be used for doing stupid shit for no reason.

And while a car in space is pretty cool (incidentally, I imagine there were loads of considerations for placing an automobile in space!), nothing yet beats NASA's levels of fuckery on mars.

OK, how would YOU do it? Be specific with practical ways, available now, to get to Earth orbit.

It's been said that no matter where you want to go in space, once you get to Earth orbit, you're halfway there. Translation: it takes a LOT of energy to get to EO. Maybe one day something will be developed to replace conventional rockets, but it still will need to overcome the tremendous energy of Earth gravity.

Once you're in space, ion thrusters are a promising technology, but they can't get you off the face of the Earth.


While you are entitled to like/dislike what they did, it was NOT for no reason. It has already been mentioned in the posts above, but they needed ballast, in essence, to serve as a test load. Instead of using something ordinary like a mass of concrete, they decided to have some PR fun with it. Musk owns SpaceX and Tesla, so you should be able to see why he did that, even if you don't like it.



No, the chances of any other manufacturer's vehicle being used would have been slim to none. As I said, SpaceX & Tesla are owned by the same guy. Even if you don't like it, it should be plain to see the self-interest.

I think this whole ridiculous exercise can be succinctly described with just a word: hubris.

I can agree with that. That's what I've long thought of Elon Musk while all the media and tech bloggers were fawning over him. Their fawning and his hubris is a self-perpetuating cycle.

That being said, it will be interesting to see what applications will be in store for the heavy lift rocket. Again, this all was a design verification test, but with a whole lot of hype & hoopla, which does not typically occur. It isn't a bad thing to have the public paying attention to space and being enthused about it again, for a change. NASA sure has blown it on that front (though they're between a rock and a hard place, being beholden to Congress, which collectively does care very much about space endeavors).

Watching the twin boosters returning to their launch pads gave me a renewed sense of pride in American ingenuity. A tremendous engineering feat. This test paves the way for entrepreneurs to invest in space exploration and save the taxpayers the expense.

This is going to open a new era and the technology and innovations discovered will benefit us all.

The landings: https://www.inverse.com/article/4099...nding-boosters

Incredible landing, but it's too bad that the central section apparently missed its platform at sea.

jr

Yes, agreed. Space X pulled off barge landings in the past. This time they were trying to land three boosters at one time. It’s hard. They will try until they perfect it.

Calm down dude, I was just saying my piece, you act like I was attacking you or something. Also, I never said anything about not liking it. I said it was cool.

Agreed! American product design and Scifi has not been as cool since NASA allowed it's self to become boring.

Just saw the twin touchdown VERY cool....I'll admit I've not been consuming as much news lately, but it feels like local media has ignored this story....Were it not for VK I probably would not have heard of this.

I wonder how well it will handle such a trip. The Enterprise took a severe beating doing the same sort of thing, but that was around the sun so who knows.

To paraphrase Red Forman, you'd know it if I were actually riled up.

Right...

:D "My little pony got turned into bologna and served with macaroni" :D

lol I've never heard that. Is that like actually a thing or did you just make that up?

Also, that sounds disgusting.

I would be inclined to use "baloney" over "bologna", but the former may be more commonly used up here, I don't know.

:) Way back in the 1980s , when MLP was a toy who didn't yet have his (her ?) own cartoon show , the TV advertising had a song that went along with the narrative where someone was singing "My little pony .........." and I don't remember the rest of the real song because all the kids of that time would sing what I posted above , and that of course is what has stuck in my head all these years whenever I see anything MLP related . Ok , so it's been a few years since the 1980s , but I figured at least Mad Man may have heard it , being into the Brony thing & all . Just a goofy kid's song kinda like "The worms crawl in , the worms crawl out , the worms play pinochle on your snout" , that sort of thing .

We went from rockets to ponies.

What in the....

That Tesla in space, is awesome!

I grew up in the 80s too, boys had a different MLP rhyme to tease the girls from the same commercial, a bit less polite though!

For sure I remember that one too ! I was in my 30s during the 1980s so I remember them well . In fact , I still drive my 1980s car , yes this IS my daily driver on all but snowy days :rockon:

Thankfully , the car with me in it has never been much more than a few inches off of the ground , and I don't think it'd run in space anyway like Musk's car would .

To bring all this back on subject, every time I see these posts referring to "MLP," I think of "Mobile Launcher Platform":

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobi...ncher_Platform

:D Yeah , thread drift is a funny thing , one minute your talkin spacecraft and before ya know it , BAM ! it becomes about ponies . Who knows whats next , legal cannibism maybe ?

I know of a legal "cannibis club" that has just opened here in Mass.

What's that ? oh it's "space" and not "spaced" , , , Got it ..... :lmao:

This thread is sliding around like my Suburban did with the wheel cranked and the pedal mashed in an unplowed parking lot after 6" of snow the other day...That was a bit more fun though. :D

Not my fault, I swear!

Wait a minute.....I saw a 59 Corvette in space in the movie Heavy Metal...at the beginning of the movie....:D

:scratch2: So now since the thread truly has come full circle , maybe we can get back to talking about ponies ? ....... NAAA , just kidding :D

;) you just watch , anytime soon there will be a government grant to study the effects of thread drift on the participant's views of the title topic .

Plenty of small animals have been sent into space, maybe it's time to up the ante.

Elephants.

What's grey and comes in quarts .......

:stupid: Battleship paint , , , , Why , what were YOU thinking ? ......

:D

No! If you put antes in space they will start making mounds on other planets, cosmic radiation will mutate them into 10' tall intelligent monsters, and they will come and take over the earth. Keep the ants on the ground where they belong! :D

Should have sent up a model t lol