Coolist Pix EVER - Starman on way to Mars and beyond

[packman]

[applegrove]

1. Breaking News: it missed its' Mars orbit and is now heading to an

asteroid belt somewhere else. CBC News

[dchill]

3. Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do.

[packman]

12. A guy was at the wheel and didn't stop to ask for directions

Should've been a woman

[applegrove]

15. LOL!

[Roland99]

17. It is The Stig!

[trixie2]

26. ha ha ha

[TlalocW]

2. I hope by the time it's back and visible in telescopes

I'm assuming the camera batteries will be dead then... I hope it's covered in graffiti that looks like it's written in some sort of alien language. I'm hoping Musk programmed something like that to happen.

TlalocW

[MLAA]

4. That would be too cool!

[writerJT]

5. Coming back is not part of the plan.

[TlalocW]

10. I thought it was going to do a Mars-sun orbit?

Guess not which is probably for the best. It would probably bring back the Loc-Nar.

TlalocW

[Snackshack]

19. The Loc-Nar...lol

That pic is opening scene to that movie come to life.

[greyl]

21. Yes, that was the original plan.

The initial plan was to have the Roadster head toward Mars orbit. Instead, the payload overshot, exceeding the red planet's spot in the solar system, and is headed toward the Asteroid Belt that's between Mars and Jupiter.

It's likely this is the last we'll ever see of the car and Starman — though they'll likely be in orbit for millions of years.

http://www.businessinsider.com/last-photo-of-starman-and-tesla-roadster-after-falcon-heavy-launch-2018-2

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. Yes and no. The orbit is between Earth's and the asteroid belt

Link to tweet

perihelion = 0.98 AU, which means it will cross earth's orbit (I'm not sure how the 3rd dimension works out - I'd expect it's basically in the same plane as Earth, because it takes extra thrust to change the plane*). I hope someone is calculating when it will next approach Earth.

* - on further searching, this claims it's at an angle of 29 degrees to the solar system plane - which seems very surprising - I'd think a lot of energy would have to go into that. It probably would mean it'll never get near Earth again, though, since the only times it's close enough to the sun, it'll be well outside the plane of Earth's orbit.

---

Update: an astronomer has updated orbital parameters for it, and they roughly agree with this site: https://www.projectpluto.com/temp/spacex.htm

Link to tweet

That says inclination 1.1 degrees, ie hardly anything, which is far more believable. Also, that aphelion of 1.7 Astronomical Units is only just beyond Mars' (which is 1.67), and nothing like the 2.61 AU that Musk's earlier tweet had. In a way, that's more reassuring, because if they had planned to send it in a Hohmann orbit shuttling between Mars's and Earth's orbits, they've more or less achieved that.

[briv1016]

27. Or it's up on blocks and the stereo's missing.

Rough neighborhood.

[randr]

6. Really says a lot of the human race

Not enough to trash the planet, we now seem proud to polute space

[Tipperary]

13. I know, I really have not been able to figure out how I feel about this.

On the one hand it’s fascinating. On the other, it bothers me for the same reason you said.

[Roland99]

18. Space is space. It is nothingness

And what of voyager 1 and 2?

The satellites that enable weather forecasting, climatology, intl communications, etc

[Snackshack]

28. Your point is well taken...

But Space X needed to use something to simulate the weight of a capsule/ crew/ supplies etc for the rocket test so instead of weighted container we got this which IMO is much cooler.

But I get your point. It is sad that we have sent so much junk into space that the crew of the ISS has to always be ready for and on several occasions has had to prep for emergency evac due to an intersecting vector with our space garbage.

[BannonsLiver]

29. Weve been hurling trash into it since the 50s

Nothing new.

[Demonaut]

33. not putting anthing there that didn't exist before..just a different arrangement of atoms

[MFM008]

36. That's what I thought

As well.

[struggle4progress]

7. Space cadet? Or just another dummy?

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. Too bad he didnt use a replica of this car...

and yes, I know why he did not.

[flying rabbit]

9. Takin' a ride...

[Canoe52]

11. This is going to be such an embarrassment if some visiting aliens come across it.

A terrestrial vehicle just floating around space with a dummy at the wheel?

Hell, when I think about it, I'm embarrassed! really, why do this?

[DBoon]

14. They will think it is some religious ritual

involving a god of transport

[alfredo]

16. Alien life would gain from a good WTF moment.

[NCTraveler]

30. Whats really going to be embarrassing....

Is when the fools try to talk to it. Bet they speak English.

[getagrip_already]

20. I keep waiting to see..

A paasenger suddenly appear. Now that would be cool.

[SHRED]

22. Why wasn't a scientific satellite sent instead?

SMDH

[Shadowsmith]

24. The cost

A scientific satellite would cost millions of dollars and the this was a test launch of a new system. Chances were the cargo wouldn't get to where it was wanted. And that's what happened with the car, but at least the car is trivial in cost.

This was a publicity stunt. Musk understands PR. And if this helps prop up public support for Space exploration, I'm fine with sending a car into space.

[SHRED]

25. Okay...that makes more sense

Thanks

[Sam McGee]

23. 'Bye, Starman

"In This Universe The Night was Falling, The Shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.

But elsewhere the Stars were still young and the light of morning lingered: and
along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again."


-- Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

[CentralMass]

31. Vintage Bowie - Starman

[Kablooie]

32. In the far distant future when mankind has forgotten about this stunt...

Someone will find this and it will confound the hell out of them.

[CentralMass]

39. And they will think that whoever did this had style.

[madamesilverspurs]

34. Couple of weeks ago

I was doing insomnia. Turned on the TV and landed on Star Trek: Voyager, and the episode started with them finding an old red pickup floating in space. And they didn't know what it was.


.

[Vinca]

37. Wish David Bowie had lived to see this.

[cbdo2007]

38. Strange all the negative responses here...

I mean, it's not my first day on DU so I know what to expect...but this piece of "space junk" is so small in the scope of the vastness of space, it is the equivalent of dropping a grain of sand in the ocean and saying you are clouding it up.