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Falcon Heavy Success!


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We now have a Cherry Red Tesla headed for a Mars flyby. Have you seen the video? Spaceman is strapped in, roof is down, speeding along. How cool is that!? I find the idea funny as well. Sign on the dash reads "Don't Panic", a nod to Douglas Adams. Strange as well. Who could have predicted in the late 60's, after reaching the moon, that one day in the not so distance future such and odd sight would occur? The lesson, anything happen and often the least likely thing. 

 

Now where can I get a poster of Spaceman in his Tesla headed for Mars to hang on my wall?

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Can you imagine the advertising for the Tesla?

 

Range: 1 billion miles;

Top speed: 11km/second

 

Watching the two boosters land simultaneously was pretty amazing, though I note they’ve kept a bit quiet about the core.

 

All good stuff.

 

Graham

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The core crashed because it didn't have enough fuel left to reach the target ship.

 

Apparently the sports car is playing David Bowie on a loop. I'd have chosen 'Born to be Wild' myself...

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40 minutes ago, GordonD said:

Apparently the sports car is playing David Bowie on a loop.

Pure Zen.

 

Although I was more tickled by the words "Don't Panic" in large friendly letters on the dash display screen B)

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That was one awesome shot of the car, and totally reminiscent of the opening Scenes of Heavy Metal The Movie.  I used to love that film, but it doesn't hold up quite as well these days.  The nod to HHGTTG was pretty cool too.  I bet it'll be white by the time its been in space long, due to the cosmic radiation.  I heard somewhere that the US flags posted on the moon also went white due to the old cosmic radiation. :hmmm:

 

Elon Musk does some awesome things ^_^

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17 minutes ago, Mike said:

I heard somewhere that the US flags posted on the moon also went white due to the old cosmic radiation. :hmmm:

What flag on what moon, it was all done from a sound studio in Hollywood, wasn't it!! :P:P

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Watched the whole thing from launch to touchdown.  A real pity the main core missed the landing ship, but the landing of the booster was pure Thunderbirds!  I see from the news today that the car "missed" the Mars orbit and is now going out a bit further.

 

Now - who makes models of the SpaceX rockets?

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20 minutes ago, Rumblestripe said:

That was awesome

 

In a bit of interesting symetry David Bowie played Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan's film "The Prestige" now there is a Tesla playing Bowie :D

This moment in time gets a bit stranger but the coolness factor increases.

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1 hour ago, Anthony Kesterton said:

A real pity the main core missed the landing ship, 

 

 

Given that it was travelling at about 300mph when it hit the water, probably just as well!

 

Graham

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Much of what Elon Musk impresses me but sending his car to orbit Mars permanantly strikes me as, somewhat odd!

 

What with our own issues with space debris, why start leaving something that has no scientific purpose, around another world?

 

Having said that though, I'm pleased that the launch and the recovery, partially, went well though landing the boosters on 3 legs seems precarious.

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Well normally on a test flight such as this they'd send a block of concrete or similar as a dummy payload, so this is just a bit of flashy PR. That said its on a orbit where it'll spend most of the time in interplanetary space millions of miles from anything...

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22 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Well normally on a test flight such as this they'd send a block of concrete or similar as a dummy payload, so this is just a bit of flashy PR.

I'm now seeing the "advertising" for Tesla cars being given a huge bill as a tax write-off.

Accountant to Musk: "Seven billion for a FH rocket launch?" "Yes, advertising the car product, now go and juggle the numbers".

 

Good to see that a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide is installed onto the dashboard. If there is a towel in the car as well...

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9 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Well normally on a test flight such as this they'd send a block of concrete or similar as a dummy payload, so this is just a bit of flashy PR. That said its on a orbit where it'll spend most of the time in interplanetary space millions of miles from anything...

(c) Ryanair

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7 hours ago, hairystick said:

Good to see that a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide is installed onto the dashboard. If there is a towel in the car as well...

There is!

 

(Wikipedia)

Roadster payload

The first generation Tesla Roadster is an all-electric sports car. Tesla delivered approximately 2,450 Roadsters worldwide between February 2008 and December 2012. The midnight cherry Roadster launched into space is one of Elon Musk's privately owned vehicles.[11][12]

A number of symbolic and whimsical objects were put in the Roadster. Positioned in the driver's seat is "Starman", a full-scale human dummy clad in SpaceX's pressure spacesuit.[13] He has his right hand on the steering wheel and left elbow resting on the open window sill. Starman is named for the David Bowie song "Starman".[14] The sound system on board the car was looping the Bowie songs "Space Oddity" and "Life on Mars?",[15] although sound does not transmit through the vacuum of space and battery power would eventually deplete.

There is a copy of Douglas Adams' 1979 novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the glovebox, along with a towel (a reference to the book) and a sign on the dashboard that reads "Don't Panic!" (another reference to the book).[16][17] The payload also includes a Hot Wheels miniature Roadster with a miniature Starman, a plaque bearing the names of the employees who worked on the project, a message on the vehicle's circuit board stating that it was "Made on Earth by humans",[18] and a copy of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series[19][20] on a laser optical quartz storage device (Arch 5D disk) created by the Arch Mission Foundation.[21]

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Imagine alien scientist will find the roadster - a doll in a full body suit piloting an open spacecraft on wheels with a good deal of the electronic components which are utter useless in Space. And a towel. Surely they will leave us alone :-)

I love it.

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