Elon Musk really is sending his car to Mars

[UM-Bot]

The SpaceX CEO has posted up images of his Tesla Roadster mounted inside the rocket's nose cone.

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/314463/elon-musk-really-is-sending-his-car-to-mars

[Vox]

Kudos to Musk.

It�s stunts like this that spark interest and also captures corporate $$$.

[TheFightingHellkitties]

Red? I was hoping for blue. Blue car on the red planet :3

 

[IBelieveWhatIWant]

2 hours ago, GiganticManchild said:

Red? I was hoping for blue. Blue car on the red planet :3

 

It's only red because is a proven fact that red cars go faster. Elon just wants the car to arrive in the quickest possible time

[pallidin]

Best check it first... Hoffa might be in the trunk.

[qxcontinuum]

have someone told this guy that the Minotaur rocket and fuel burnt to achieve his goal, will be the equivalent of a few thousand gas powered vehicles polluting Earth in one year ? 

Just another ridiculous rich men caprice ! 

Edited December 29, 2017 by qxcontinuum

[Emmisal]

Elon never stops being crazy. That's why I like him.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

18 hours ago, seanjo said:

Again, what a waste of money,

What money is being wasted exactly? I'll answer that for you... NONE.

This launch is a test flight, and by Musk's own admission quite likely to fail. Most first flights of a new rocket do not carry a payload but instead carry ballast to simulate one. Musk has just chosen a Tesla car as ballast instead of the more traditional concrete weight (see this post in a previous thread for a more detailed explanation).

18 hours ago, seanjo said:

surely they could put something more productive into orbit like a really hi-res camera, and other scientific detectors...

You can't just put a hi-res camera into orbit. You need two way communications to up-load commands and down-load the images. You need highly paid technicians to send the commands, yet more highly paid scientists to decipher the images. You need a ground network to transmit and receive the signals . The camera will need to be pointed precisely so you need thrusters and a system for detecting the camera's orientation. The camera will need power so you need a power source. What you end up with is an expensive imaging satellite. Putting such a satellite on a test flight likely to fail really would be a potential waste of money.

Besides which what are you going to image exactly? It is being sent on an elliptical orbit which will take it close to that of Mars, but for the vast majority of time it will be nowhere near anything it can image. Now that WOULD be a waste of money.

18 hours ago, qxcontinuum said:

have someone told this guy that the Minotaur rocket and fuel burnt to achieve his goal, will be the equivalent of a few thousand gas powered vehicles polluting Earth in one year ?

What has the Minotaur rocket got to do with it? That is a rocket made by Orbital ATK not SpaceX. As for the fuel... no additional fuel will be burnt as a result of the Tesla being included in this mission.

18 hours ago, qxcontinuum said:

Just another ridiculous rich men caprice ! 

Nonsense. Just a man who knows how to use an opportunity to get free advertising. That's why he's a billionaire and you and I aren't.

[RAyMO]

I'd prefer if he would put some thought into the dashboard of his cars.

[Derek Willis]

1 hour ago, seanjo said:

I'm sorry you've surprised me! Of all the people that I thought would be on my wavelength on this, I thought it would be you...It's a complete waste of time, money and energy. There are better things that could be done with this...full stop.

As Waspie and others have pointed out, this is a test-flight. There is an expectation the launch might at some point fail. So what are the "better things" that could be done? If Space-X aren't going to launch the Tesla, they are going to launch a lump of concrete ... full stop.

[toast]

23 hours ago, qxcontinuum said:

have someone told this guy that the Minotaur rocket ...

Someone told you already that there is no Minotaur rocket involved.

Quote

... and fuel burnt to achieve his goal, will be the equivalent of a few thousand gas powered vehicles polluting Earth in one year ?

Maybe you dont now yet, but also the web needs electricity. So there is a negative side effect, means, a pollution of the Earth`s environment caused by useless comments on the web, like yours, which is a multiple of the pollution amount caused by thousands of gas powered vehicles.

[Derek Willis]

5 minutes ago, seanjo said:

REALLY, the best thing you can think to put in orbit around Mars is a car...REALLY?

I think you are deliberately missing the point. No one is going to fund an expensive "useful" payload on-board an untested rocket. So if Mister Musk wants to get some publicity for Space-X and Tesla with a stunt, then why not do it? By the way, it is Musk's and the other shareholders' money funding the launch, so what is it to you? They are not wasting the money, they are testing a rocket that will help reduce the cost of access to space, and that will benefit everyone. Would you rather he spent the $100 million on a yacht or a 100-room mansion?

[toast]

24 minutes ago, seanjo said:

I'M missing the point?

Yes.

 

[Waspie_Dwarf]

7 hours ago, seanjo said:

I'm sorry you've surprised me! Of all the people that I thought would be on my wavelength on this, I thought it would be you...It's a complete waste of time, money and energy. There are better things that could be done with this...full stop.

I'm not on your wavelength on this because I actually understand the concept of a test flight, which you don't seem to.

You no more put a useful payload on the test flight of a rocket than you put passengers on the test flight of an airliner. The clue is in the word TEST.

2 hours ago, seanjo said:

REALLY, the best thing you can think to put in orbit around Mars is a car...REALLY?

As I have already pointed out, NOTHING is being put into orbit around Mars.

10 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Besides which what are you going to image exactly? It is being sent on an elliptical orbit which will take it close to that of Mars, but for the vast majority of time it will be nowhere near anything it can image. 

 

Edited December 30, 2017 by Waspie_Dwarf
typos.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

2 hours ago, seanjo said:

I'M missing the point?????

Hugely.

2 hours ago, seanjo said:

What is wrong with you people......?

We suffer from something called "knowing what we are talking about".

[toast]

22 minutes ago, seanjo said:

OMFG...even a test launch could have use, even if it fails,

Establish your own space company with your own money and lauch what you want on the maiden flight.

[Derek Willis]

1 hour ago, seanjo said:

OMFG...even a test launch could have use, even if it fails,

It does. If the flight fails, Space-X will know why it failed. They can then rectify the problem.

[Derek Willis]

52 minutes ago, toast said:

Establish your own space company with your own money and lauch what you want on the maiden flight.

Preferably himself.

[toast]

31 minutes ago, Derek Willis said:

Preferably himself.

Would increase the thread`s quality, of course.

[Peter B]

2 hours ago, seanjo said:

OMFG...even a test launch could have use, even if it fails,

Can you give some examples of the sort of payload you'd launch on a test flight?

Consider that Musk himself has said he'd be happy if the rocket clears the launch pad before it explodes...now, sure, that's underselling the product, but it reminds everyone that the Falcon Heavy is currently an untested product.

To put it another way, imagine you worked at a communications company and you had a $200 million comms satellite waiting to be launched. You've just been phoned by SpaceX's marketing division, offering you a free launch if you're willing to place that satellite on top of the Falcon Heavy. You go to the big boss with the pitch...

Seanjo: They said we can have the launch for free.

Big boss: And this is the Falcon Heavy's first launch - never flown before, has it?

Seanjo: Well, no, it hasn't launched before.

Big boss: So what odds do they give of success?

Seanjo: Well, Mr Musk says he hopes it'll clear the launch tower before it explodes. I reckon it's got at least a 10% chance of working just fine.

Big boss: So how much money will we save if we launch for free?

Seanjo: Around $50 million.

Big boss: And given the rocket's unreliability, how much extra will our insurance premium be for the satellite?

Seanjo: Around...um...$50 million.

[Peter B]

21 minutes ago, seanjo said:

I said before, a hi res camera, at the very least. Take the p*** all you want, then ask yourself what could all the money, tech and effort be used for...apart from putting a car in orbit around Mars. Repeat that to yourself...'put a car in orbit around Mars'.

1. Falcon 9 launches already include plenty of cameras. I doubt this launch will be any different. And given that a payload of "a hi res camera" doesn't exactly stretch the payload capacity of the Falcon Heavy, why not add some high-visibility ballast like, say, a Tesla car?

2. Why would I want to repeat a statement that isn't true? The only person who's saying that Musk is putting a car into orbit around Mars is you.

3. Musk has already downplayed the likelihood of "success" for this mission (by which I assume we're talking about putting the car into solar orbit). Remember the bit about hoping that if the rocket explodes it doesn't damage the launch pad? Seriously, if he's thinking that the rocket isn't likely to make it into orbit or experience much in the way of weightlessness, what sort of payload would you put on it?

4. Why is this first launch of a rocket different from the first launch of any other rocket? What was the payload of the first Redstone launched? The first Atlas? The first Titan? The first Delta? Do you understand the point we're trying to make? Did any of them carry operational payloads? Or ballast?

[fred_mc]

It says that it is his own car they are sending. It is a like he is saying: "Look at me, I'm so rich so I can blow my luxury car to pieces without caring about it."

[Jon the frog]

That's a huge rocket, i was thinking that the car would be upright but it's practically flat on top, lol

[schroedingerscat]

Waspie_Dwarf is right, this is Elon's rocket, it's his car, and it's a TEST flight.  If he wants to substitute his car for the customary steel or concrete slabs, that is his prerogative.  Makes me think about the opening scene to the 'Heavy Metal' movie, when the astronaut returns to earth in what appeared to be an early model Corvette roadster, to the tune of 'Radar Rider' by Riggs... man, am I getting old.

[Derek Willis]

On 12/31/2017 at 4:03 AM, seanjo said:

I said before, a hi res camera, at the very least. Take the p*** all you want, then ask yourself what could all the money, tech and effort be used for...apart from putting a car in orbit around Mars. Repeat that to yourself...'put a car in orbit around Mars'.

How can't you grasp what is going on here? For the nth time this is a TEST launch, and so the money HAS to be spent. The flight is providing publicity for Space-X and Tesla Cars. Some day we will all be driving around in electric vehicles, and Tesla will have paid a huge role in that. So rather than spend millions on television commercials to promote Tesla, Musk is taking advantage of the publicity he can derive from a test launch of a rocket. Makes absolute sense to me.