Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 06:47, 26 December 2024

Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster

Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster. Earth is in the background
Names	SpaceX Roadster Starman
Mission type	Test flight
Operator	SpaceX
COSPAR ID	2018-017A
SATCAT no.	43205
Mission duration	Active: 1 Day In Orbit: 6 years, 10 months and 21 days
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	2010 Tesla Roadster used as a mass simulator, attached to the upper stage of a Falcon Heavy rocket
Manufacturer	Tesla and SpaceX
Launch mass	~1,300 kg (2,900 lb); ~5,900 kg (13,000 lb) including rocket upper stage
Start of mission
Launch date	20:45:00, February 6, 2018 (UTC) (2018-02-06T20:45:00Z)
Rocket	Falcon Heavy FH-001
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39A
Contractor	SpaceX
End of mission
Deactivated	February 7, 2018
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Heliocentric
Eccentricity	0.25571
Perihelion altitude	0.98613 au (147,523,000 km)
Aphelion altitude	1.6637 au (248,890,000 km)
Inclination	1.077°
Period	1.525 year
Epoch	1 May 2018

This article is part of a series aboutElon Musk
Personal Awards and honors Views Family Filmography Legal affairs Wealth Companies Zip2 X.com PayPal SpaceX Starlink Tesla, Inc. Energy criticism litigation OpenAI Neuralink The Boring Company Thud X Corp. Twitter under Elon Musk Twitter, Inc. acquisition xAI Politics America PAC RBG PAC Department of Government Efficiency In popular culture Elon Musk (Isaacson) Elon Musk (Vance) Ludicrous Power Play "Members Only" "The Platonic Permutation" "The Musk Who Fell to Earth" "One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty" Elon Musk's Crash Course Related Boring Test Tunnel Hyperloop SolarCity Tesla Roadster in space TSLAQ Twitter Files 2022 Twitter suspensions Tesla and unions
v t e

Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that served as the dummy payload for the February 2018 Falcon Heavy test flight and became an artificial satellite of the Sun. A mannequin in a spacesuit, dubbed "Starman", occupies the driver's seat. The car and rocket are products of Tesla and SpaceX, respectively, both companies headed by Elon Musk. The 2010 Roadster is personally owned by and previously used by Musk for commuting to work. It is the first production car launched into space.

The car, mounted on the rocket's second stage, was launched on an escape trajectory and entered an elliptical heliocentric orbit crossing the orbit of Mars. The orbit reaches a maximum distance from the Sun at aphelion of 1.66 astronomical units (au). Video of the Roadster during the launch was transmitted back to the mission control center and live-streamed.

Advertising analysts noted Musk's sense of brand management and use of new media for his decision to launch a Tesla into space. Musk explained he wanted to inspire the public about the "possibility of something new happening in space" as part of his larger vision for spreading humanity to other planets.

Background

In March 2017, SpaceX's founder, Elon Musk, said that because the launch of the new Falcon Heavy vehicle was risky, it would carry the "silliest thing we can imagine".

In June 2017, one of his Twitter followers suggested that the silly thing be a Tesla Model S, to which Musk replied: "Suggestions welcome!"

In December 2017, Musk announced that the payload would be his personal "midnight cherry Tesla Roadster".

One of the test flight objectives was to demonstrate that the new rocket could carry a payload as far as the orbit of Mars. NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver stated that SpaceX had "offered free launches to NASA, Air Force etc. but got no takers", and that "the Tesla gimmick was the backup".

The Roadster is the first standard roadworthy vehicle sent into space, following several special-purpose lunar and Mars rovers.

Roadster as payload

The car was permanently mounted on the rocket in an inclined position above the payload adapter. Tubular structures were added to mount front and side cameras. Photos of the car prior to payload encapsulation were released.

Positioned in the driver's seat is "Starman", a full-scale human mannequin clad in a SpaceX pressure spacesuit. It was placed with the right hand on the steering wheel and the left elbow resting on the open window sill. The mannequin was named after the David Bowie song "Starman", and the car's sound system was set before launch to continuously loop the Bowie song "Space Oddity".

A copy of Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is in the glove box, along with references to the book in the form of a towel and a sign on the dashboard that reads "DON'T PANIC!".

A Hot Wheels miniature Roadster with a miniature Starman is mounted on the dashboard. A plaque bearing the names of the employees who worked on the project is placed underneath the car, and a message on the vehicle's circuit board reads "Made on Earth by humans". The car carries a copy of Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy on a 5D optical disc, a proof of concept for high-density long-lasting data storage, donated to Musk by the Arch Mission Foundation.

Trajectory

The US Office of Commercial Space Transportation issued the test flight's launch license on February 2, 2018. The rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 15:45 EST (20:45 UTC) on February 6. The upper stage supporting the car was initially placed in an Earth parking orbit. It spent six hours coasting through the Van Allen radiation belts, thereby demonstrating a new capability requested by the U.S. Air Force for direct insertion of heavy intelligence satellites into geostationary orbit. Then, the upper stage performed a second boost to reach the desired escape trajectory.

The launch was live streamed, and video feeds from space showed the Roadster at various angles, with Earth in the background, thanks to cameras placed inside and outside the car, on booms attached to the vehicle's custom adaptor atop the upper stage. Musk had estimated the car's battery would last over 12 hours, but the live stream ran for just over four hours, thus ending before the final boost out of Earth orbit. The images were released by SpaceX into the public domain on their Flickr account.

Following the launch, the rocket stage carrying the car was given the Satellite Catalog Number 43205, named "TESLA ROADSTER/FALCON 9H", along with the COSPAR designation 2018-017A. The JPL Horizons system publishes solutions for the trajectory as target body "-143205".

The Roadster is in a heliocentric orbit that crosses the orbit of Mars and reaches a distance of 1.66 au from the Sun. With an inclination of roughly 1 degree to the ecliptic plane, compared to Mars' 1.85° inclination, this trajectory by design cannot intercept Mars, so the car will neither fly by Mars nor enter an orbit around Mars. This was the second object launched by SpaceX to leave Earth orbit, after the DSCOVR mission to the Earth–Sun L₁ Lagrangian point. Nine months after launch, the Tesla had travelled beyond the orbit of Mars, reaching aphelion at 12:48 UTC on November 9, 2018, at a distance of 248,892,559 km (1.664 au) from the Sun. The maximum speed of the car relative to the Sun will be approximately 121,000 km/h (75,000 mph) at perihelion.

Even if the rocket had targeted an actual Mars transfer orbit, the car could not have been placed into orbit around Mars, because the upper stage that carries it is not equipped with the necessary propellant, maneuvering, and communications capabilities. This flight simply demonstrated that Falcon Heavy is capable of launching significant payloads towards Mars in potential future missions.

Cultural impact

The car in space quickly became a topic for Internet memes. Western Australia Police distributed a picture of a radar gun aimed at the Roadster whilst above Australia. Škoda produced a parody video of a Škoda Superb being driven to Mars, a village in central France. An attempt was made by Donut Media to launch a Hot Wheels Tesla Model X to the stratosphere using a weather balloon. ToSky, a Russian start-up, sent a scale model of a Soviet-era Lada carrying a mannequin of Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin to an altitude of 20 km (12 miles) to gather test data for the design of stratostats.

Some news reports observed a similarity between the real pictures of a car orbiting the Earth and the title sequence of the animated cult classic film Heavy Metal (1981), where a space traveler lands on Earth in a two-seater Chevrolet Corvette convertible.

The SpaceX launch live stream reached over 2.3 million concurrent viewers on YouTube, which made it the second most watched live event on the platform, behind another space-related event: Felix Baumgartner's jump from the stratosphere in 2012.

Reactions

The choice of the Roadster as a dummy payload was variously interpreted as marketing for Tesla, or a work of art, with some worrying about the risk to contamination of otherwise sterile solar system bodies. Some also commented on how the Roadster was not a space debris risk.

Marketing

Musk was lauded as a visionary marketer and brand manager by controlling both the timing and the content of his corporate public relations. After the launch, Scientific American said using a car was not entirely pointless, in the sense that something of that size and weight was necessary for a meaningful test. "Thematically, it was a perfect fit" to use the Tesla car, and there was no reason not to take the opportunity to remind the auto industry that Musk was challenging the status quo in that arena, as well as in space.

Advertising Age agreed with Business Insider that the Roadster space launch was the "greatest ever car commercial without a dime spent on advertising", demonstrating that Musk is "miles ahead of the rest" in reaching young consumers, where "mere mortals scrabble about spending millions to fight each other over seconds of air time", Musk "just executes his vision." Alex Hern, technology reporter for The Guardian, said the choice to launch a car was a "hybrid of genuine breakthrough and nerd-baiting publicity stunt" without "any real point beyond generating good press pics", which should not detract from the much more important technological milestone represented by the launch of the rocket itself.

Lori Garver, a former NASA deputy director, initially said the choice of payload for the Falcon Heavy maiden flight is a gimmick and a loss of opportunity to further advance science—but later clarified that "I was told by a SpaceX VP (vice president) at the launch that they offered free launches to NASA, Air Force etc. but got no takers."

Musk responded to the critics stating he wanted to inspire the public about the "possibility of something new happening in space," as part of his larger vision for spreading humanity to other planets.

Work of art

The Verge likened the Roadster to a "ready-made" work of art, such as Marcel Duchamp's 1917 piece Fountain, created by placing an everyday object in an unusual position, context and orientation.

Alice Gorman, a lecturer in archaeology and space studies at Flinders University in Australia, said that the Roadster's primary purpose is symbolic communication, that "the red sports car symbolises masculinity – power, wealth and speed – but also how fragile masculinity is." Drawing on anthropological theories of symbols, she argues that "The car is also an armour against dying, a talisman that quells a profound fear of mortality." Gorman wrote that "the spacesuit is also about death. The Starman was never alive, but now he's haunting space."

Space debris non-risk

Orbital debris expert Darren McKnight stated that the car poses no risk because it is far from Earth orbit. He added: "The enthusiasm and interest that generates more than offsets the infinitesimally small 'littering' of the cosmos." Tommy Sanford, director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, said that the car and its rocket stage are no more "space junk" than the mundane material usually launched on other test flights. Mass simulators are often deliberately placed in a graveyard orbit or sent on a deep space trajectory, where they are not a hazard.

Bacteriological contamination

The Planetary Society was concerned that launching a non-sterile object to interplanetary space may risk biological contamination of a foreign world. Scientists at Purdue University noted that the vehicle will be sterilized by solar radiation over time and the vehicle is most likely to hit the Earth in the future, though some bacteria might survive on some components of the vehicle which could contaminate Mars in the distant future if it were to hit Mars instead.

Orbit tracking

The car and the upper stage were passivated by intentionally removing remaining chemical and electrical energy, at which point they ceased transmitting telemetry. Based on optical observations made using a robotic telescope at the Warrumbungle Observatory, Dubbo, Australia and refinement of the orbit, a close re-encounter with Earth (originally predicted for 2073) is not possible. In October 2020 the car made a close approach to Mars, about 8 million kilometres (5 million miles) away, at which distance Mars's gravity had no significant effect on the Roadster's orbit.

The Virtual Telescope Project observed the Tesla two days after its launch, where it had a magnitude of 15.5, comparable to Pluto's moon Charon. The Roadster was automatically spotted and logged by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope operated by the University of Hawaiʻi. The car was observed by the Deimos Sky Survey (DeSS) at a distance of 720,000 km (450,000 mi) with a flashing effect suggesting spinning.

Through measuring changes in apparent brightness of the object, astronomers have determined that the Roadster is rotating with a period of 4.7589 ± 0.0060 minutes (i.e. 4 minutes, 46 seconds). By February 11, 2018, astrometry measurements from 241 independent observations had been collated, refining the positions to within one-tenth of an arcsecond and published by the SeeSat-L mailing list, a group of amateur satellite spotters—more accurate than for most observations of objects in space.

Future predictions

The roadster made its first close approach to Mars on October 7, 2020. The next close approach to Earth will be in the year 2047 at a distance of 5 million kilometers, about 13 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. Simulations over a 3-million-year timespan found a probability of the Roadster colliding with Earth at approximately 6%, or with Venus at approximately 2.5%. These probabilities of collision are similar to those of other near-Earth objects. The half-life for the tested orbits was calculated as approximately 20 million years, but with trajectories varying significantly following a close approach to the Earth–Moon system in 2091.

Musk had originally speculated that the car could drift in space for a billion years. According to chemist William Carroll, solar radiation, cosmic radiation, and micrometeoroid impacts will structurally degrade the car over time. Radiation will eventually break down any material with carbon–carbon bonds, including carbon fiber parts. Tires, paint, plastic and leather might have lasted only about a year, while carbon fiber parts will last considerably longer. Eventually, only the aluminum frame, inert metals, and glass not shattered by meteoroids will remain.

Potential follow up mission

In August 2019, as the Roadster completed its first orbit around the Sun, Musk stated that SpaceX may one day launch a small spacecraft or Starship to catch up with the Roadster and take photographs or even return it to Earth for studying solar erosion on it just as Apollo 12 did with Surveyor 3 lander's components.

See also

• List of artificial objects in heliocentric orbit
• List of passive satellites

References

1. ^ Miley, Jessica (February 9, 2018). "NASA Officially Lists Elon Musk's Floating Tesla Roadster As a Celestial Object". Interesting Engineering. Archived from the original on March 22, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2018. JPL designated the artificial object as "Tesla Roadster (Starman, 2018-017A)"
2. ^ Hammerton, Ron (February 7, 2018). "Sky is the limit for Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster in pioneering space shot". goauto.com.au. Archived from the original on October 16, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
3. Kyle, Ed. "SpaceX Falcon Heavy Data Sheet". spacelaunchreport.com. Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
4. ^ "Tesla Roadster (spacecraft) (solution #10)". JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System. March 27, 2018. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2018.
5. LaMonica, Martin (September 21, 2009). "Tesla Motors founders: Now there are five". CNet. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2018. agreed-upon "founders" of Tesla. Eberhard, Elon Musk, JB Straubel, Marc Tarpenning, and Ian Wright.
6. ^ Harwood, William (February 8, 2017). "'Starman' puts Earth in the rearview mirror". CBS News. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved February 8, 2018 – via Spaceflight Now.
7. ^ Live Views of Starman. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2018 – via YouTube.
8. ^ Mosher, Dave (March 13, 2018). "Elon Musk explains why he launched a car toward Mars — and the reasons are much bigger than his ego". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
9. @elonmusk (March 31, 2017). "Silliest thing we can imagine! Secret payload of 1st Dragon flight was a giant wheel of cheese. Inspired by a friend & Monty Python" (Tweet). Retrieved July 11, 2018 – via Twitter.
10. Arevalo, Evelyn Janeidy (June 15, 2017). "@elonmusk Please Let Twitter vote for #FalconHeavyCargo Let us imagine the silliest things possible! @arstechnica @TeslaMotors @spacex -RT&❤" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
11. Reagan, Mark (February 7, 2018). "Brownsville woman, Musk interact on social media". The Brownsville Herald. Archived from the original on February 10, 2018.
12. Rodriguez, Marlane (January 2, 2018). "Brownsville Woman Inspires SpaceX to Launch Car to Mars". KVEO-TV. Archived from the original on July 29, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
13. @elonmusk (July 2, 2017). "Suggestions welcome!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
14. ^ @elonmusk (December 2, 2017). "Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn't blow up on ascent" (Tweet). Retrieved February 20, 2018 – via Twitter.
15. "Elon Musk says SpaceX will try to launch his Tesla Roadster on new heavy-lift rocket". Space Flight Now. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2017.
16. Malik, Tariq (December 1, 2017). "Elon Musk Will Launch His Tesla Roadster to Mars on SpaceX's 1st Falcon Heavy Rocket". Space.com. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
17. "Falcon Heavy's Debut Flight Payload: A Tesla Roadster". Aviation Week & Space Technology. December 6, 2017. Archived from the original on July 31, 2019. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
18. Mosher, Dave (February 9, 2018). "Launching Elon Musk's car toward Mars was a backup plan — here's what SpaceX actually wanted to do with Falcon Heavy's first flight". Business Insider. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
19. "The First Car in Space". December 30, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
20. Knapp, Alex (December 22, 2017). "Elon Musk Shows Off Photos of a Tesla Roadster Getting Prepped to Go to Mars". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2017.
21. Weitering, Hanneke (February 5, 2018). "Elon Musk Unveils 'Starman' in Tesla Roadster Launching on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Rocket". Space.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2018.
22. Pappalardo, Joe (February 5, 2018). "Elon Musk's Space Tesla Isn't Going to Mars. It's Going Somewhere More Important". Popular Mechanics. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
23. "SpaceX Successfully Launches the Falcon Heavy – and Elon Musk's Roadster". WIRED. February 6, 2018. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
24. • @tiamaria68uk (December 8, 2017). "Will the glove box contain "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy"?" (Tweet). Retrieved December 8, 2017 – via Twitter.
    • @elonmusk (December 8, 2017). "Yes" (Tweet). Retrieved December 8, 2017 – via Twitter.
    • @elonmusk (December 8, 2017). "Plus a towel and a sign saying 'Don't Panic'" (Tweet). Retrieved December 8, 2017 – via Twitter.
25. Musk, Elon. "Printed on the circuit board of a car in deep space". Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2018 – via Instagram.
26. Taylor, Chris (February 9, 2018). "Forget the Tesla, Elon Musk launched the first books in an ever-lasting space library". Mashable. Archived from the original on February 18, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
27. Olson, Eric (February 14, 2018). "Backing Up Humanity: First Arch Launched on Falcon Heavy". IEEE GlobalSpec. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
28. ^ Wong, Kenneth (February 2, 2018). "License Number: LLS 18-107" (PDF). Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Retrieved February 5, 2018. Space Exploration Technologies is authorized to conduct: (i) a flight of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) transporting the modified Tesla Roadster (mass simulator) to a hyperbolic orbit; and
29. Santana, Marco; Brinkmann, Paul (February 6, 2018). "SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch live coverage: Liftoff successful". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
30. Gebhardt, Chris (February 6, 2018). "SpaceX set to debut Falcon Heavy in demonstration launch from KSC". NASASpaceFlight.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
31. Berger, Eric (February 6, 2018). "Elon Musk says the Falcon Heavy has a 50-50 chance of success". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
32. Boyle, Alan (February 6, 2018). "Elon Musk explains why SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket is risky – and revolutionary". GeekWire. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
33. Foust, Jeff (February 5, 2018). "Musk: will be three cameras mounted on the Roadster, should provide "epic views" if all goes well" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
34. McDowell, Jonathan (February 8, 2018). "I now have confirmation that the Tesla remains attached to the Falcon 2nd stage, which is being observed by asteroid experts" (Tweet). Retrieved February 11, 2018 – via Twitter.
35. Weitering, Hanneke (February 6, 2018). "Watch Live Views of SpaceX's Starman Riding a Tesla Roadster in Space!". Space.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
36. "This is what a Tesla Roadster looks like floating through space". CNBC. February 6, 2018. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
37. Zhang, Michael (February 8, 2018). "This is the Last Photo of the Tesla That's Flying Away From Earth". PetaPixel. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2018. The photo was shared by billionaire Elon Musk on Instagram and SpaceX on Flickr. As you might remember, SpaceX began publishing all of its Flickr photos to the public domain in March 2015, leading Flickr to add a public domain designation just days later.
38. Brown, Molly (March 23, 2015). "Elon Musk makes SpaceX photos free for public use". GeekWire. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
39. "TESLA ROADSTER/FALCON 9H". N2YO.com. Archived from the original on February 19, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
40. ^ Plait, Phil (December 2, 2017). "Elon Musk: On the Roadster to Mars". Syfy Wire. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
41. Nag, Poulami (November 4, 2018). "SpaceX Starman reaches beyond Mars in his cherry red Tesla Roadster". ibtimes.co.in. IB Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
42. Frieger, Greg (2018). "Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster in Space – Live Position". where-is-tesla-roadster.space. Archived from the original on February 20, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2018. Select "Aug 15, 2019 Closest to the Sun (perihelion)" in the "Past and future events" section to view the predicted speed at that time.
43. Bayle, Alfred (February 7, 2018). "Tesla Roadster in space becomes internet's new favorite meme". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
44. Baliūnaitė, Ilona (February 7, 2018). "47 Of The Funniest Reactions To Elon Musk Sending Tesla Car To Mars". Bored Panda. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
45. "Hilarisch: Australische politie slingert ruimte-Tesla op de bon vanwege hoge snelheid" [Hilarious: Australian Police send orbiting Tesla a speeding ticket]. RTL Nieuws (in Dutch). February 7, 2018. Archived from the original on July 31, 2020. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
46. Western Australia Police (February 7, 2018). "Ticket's in the post mate... 😉 #AnywhereAnytime #WAPoliceForce #FalconHeavy" (Tweet). Retrieved February 16, 2018 – via Twitter.
47. Padeanu, Adrian (February 14, 2018). "Skoda Releases Video Proof Of Sending Superb To Mars". Motor1.com. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
48. Škoda France (February 14, 2018). #MissionToMars (in English and French). Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved February 15, 2018 – via Youtube.
49. Patel, Joel V. (February 27, 2018). "Launching A Tesla Model X Toy Car Into Space Is Insanely Difficult, Incredibly Hilarious". Carscoops. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
50. Donut Media (February 25, 2018). We Tried to Launch a Tesla to Space Too. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2018 – via Youtube.
51. "Russians send Soviet car model into stratosphere". BBC News. June 12, 2019. Archived from the original on December 28, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
52. Cross, Alan (February 7, 2018). "A Canadian-American predicted what Elon Musk's rocket roadster did yesterday—in 1981!". CFNY-FM. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved February 11, 2018. picture is not fake photo is from space resemblance to the opening sequence of a Canadian-American adult animated movie from 1981 called Heavy Metal
53. DeBord, Matthew (February 10, 2018). "The Falcon Heavy Roadster Launch reveals how Tesla and SpaceX are already beginning to merge". Business Insider UK. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved February 11, 2018. Roadster orbiting Earth like something out of the opening sequence from the 1981 grownup animated movie "Heavy Metal"
54. Singleton, Micah (February 6, 2018). "SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch was YouTube's second biggest live stream ever". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
55. ^ Billings, Lee (February 6, 2018). "Elon Musk Does It Again; His Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off on the first try, puts a Tesla auto into orbit—and maybe changes the business of space commerce and exploration forever". Scientific American. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018.
56. ^ Wnek, Mark (February 8, 2018). "There's Advertising and Marketing, and Then There's Elon Musk". Ad Age. Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
57. ^ Matousek, Mark (February 7, 2018). "Tesla created the world's best car commercial without spending a dime on advertising". Business Insider. Archived from the original on February 10, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
58. "The mega-rich have ambitious plans to improve the world; Should that be a cause for celebration or concern?". The Economist. February 8, 2018. Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
59. Hern, Alex (February 7, 2018). "Forget the car in space: why Elon Musk's reusable rockets are more than a publicity stunt; The onboard Tesla Roadster grabbed the headlines, but the real success of this week's space adventure was the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018.
60. Richards, Alexandra (February 9, 2018). "Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch was just a gimmick, says former NASA boss Lori Garver". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
61. Chayka, Kyle (February 10, 2018). "Elon Musk made history launching a car into space. Did he make art too?". Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved February 11, 2018. a staggering image and so impressive that the video seems somehow unreal. It's the greatest car ad of all time. In 1917, Marcel Duchamp put a urinal on a pedestal, titled it Fountain and called it art. a readymade, his word for a combination of everyday objects reassembled or re-contextualized by an artist.
62. David, Leonard (February 9, 2018). "Tesla Roadster Gets Interplanetary ID". Space.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018.
63. ^ Gorman, Alice (February 7, 2018). "A sports car and a glitter ball are now in space – what does that say about us as humans?". The Conversation. Flinders University. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
64. David, Leonard (February 5, 2018). "Is the Tesla Roadster Flying on the Falcon Heavy's Maiden Flight Just Space Junk?". Space.com. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018.
65. Kaufman, Mark (February 8, 2018). "Elon Musk's 'Starman' Tesla Roadster isn't your typical piece of space junk". Mashable. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
66. Let's talk about Elon Musk launching his Tesla into space Archived June 30, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Jason Davis, The Planetary Society. 5 February 2018.
67. Szondy, David (February 27, 2018). "Tesla in space could carry bacteria from Earth". Purdue University. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
68. Langbroek, Marco; Starr, Peter (February 9, 2018). "Starman (Falcon Heavy/Tesla Roadster) 2018-017A imaged in Space". Archived from the original on February 10, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2018. images were taken, 16:39-16:50 UT on 8 February 2018 distance of 550 000 km or about 1.4 Lunar distances c.q. 0.0037 AU 30-second exposures taken by Peter Starr and me with the 0.43-m F6.8 remote robotic telescope of Dubbo Observatory in Australia 2073 close encounter is no longer on the table.
69. ^ Kim, Allen (October 8, 2020). "SpaceX's Tesla roadster made its first close approach with Mars". CNN. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
70. Masi, Gianluca (February 8, 2018). "Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster imaged and filmed!". virtualtelescope.eu. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
71. Denneau, Larry (February 8, 2018). "UH ATLAS telescope spots SpaceX Tesla Roadster in flight" (Press release). University of Hawaiʻi. Archived from the original on February 11, 2018. Retrieved February 11, 2018. ATLAS was not looking for the Roadster—it was found during routine observations and automatically identified as a near-Earth object.
72. "New images of SpaceX's Starman Tesla". Elecnor Deimos. February 9, 2018. Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved February 11, 2018. captured the vehicle at a distance of 720.000 km from Earth ... show a flickering effect that suggests that the Tesla Roadster is spinning fast.
73. "Here's Exactly How Fast Elon Musk's Tesla Is Spinning In Space". February 13, 2018. Archived from the original on February 14, 2018. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
74. Gray, Bill (February 11, 2018). "Re: Tesla roadster and booster observations". Archived from the original on February 14, 2018. Retrieved February 14, 2018 – via SeeSat-L mailing list. list of 241 observations and growing continue to be observed for about two weeks. know the position of this object to better than a tenth of an arcsecond, Almost nobody is getting data that accurate.
75. Rein, Hanno; Tamayo, Daniel; Vokrouhlicky, David (February 13, 2018). "The random walk of cars and their collision probabilities with planets". Aerospace. 5 (2): 57. arXiv:1802.04718. Bibcode:2018Aeros...5...57R. doi:10.3390/aerospace5020057. S2CID 119328461.
76. Lezter, Rafi (February 6, 2018). "Radiation Will Tear Elon Musk's Rocket Car to Bits in a Year". LiveScience. Archived from the original on December 6, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
77. Wall, Mike (August 20, 2019). "SpaceX's Starman and Elon Musk's Tesla Have Made a Lap Around the Sun". space.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
78. Brown, Mike (August 19, 2019). "Where Is Starman? Elon Musk Teases SpaceX Mission to Catch Up With Roadster". inverse.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.

External links

• "Live Views of Starman (4:13:10)". YouTube. SpaceX. February 6, 2018.
• "0.43-m F6.8 Planewave telescope, Dubbo, AU", Wikimedia Commons, February 9, 2018, Loop of 4 frames of Roadster moving across the sky
• "Starman cruising through space (00:12)". YouTube. February 11, 2018.
• "Random walk of cars and their collision probabilities with planets". Aerospace. 5 (2): 57. February 13, 2018. arXiv:1802.04718v2. Bibcode:2018Aeros...5...57R. doi:10.3390/aerospace5020057.

Real-time

Trajectory animation, past and future events, orbital elements.

• "Where in Space is Tesla Roadster". Where is Tesla Roadster. Unaffiliated. March 27, 2018.
• "Where is Starman? Track Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster in Space!". Where is Roadster. Unaffiliated. February 7, 2018.

v t e Elon Musk
Main	Awards and honors Filmography Legal affairs Tornetta v. Musk, et al. Views Wealth
Companies	Zip2 X.com PayPal SpaceX (Starlink) Tesla, Inc. Tesla Energy criticism TSLAQ lawsuits OpenAI Neuralink The Boring Company Boring test tunnel SolarCity Thud X Corp. Twitter, Inc. Twitter Twitter under Elon Musk Acquisition of Twitter Twitter Files December 2022 suspensions Block in Brazil xAI
Depictions	Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (2015) "The Musk Who Fell to Earth" (2015) The Space Barons (2018) Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors (2019) "One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty" (2019) Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century (2021) Return to Space (2022) Elon Musk's Crash Course (2022) Elon Musk (2023)
People	Musk family Maye Musk (mother) Kimbal Musk (brother) Tosca Musk (sister) Joshua N. Haldeman (grandfather) Lyndon Rive (cousin) Justine Musk (first wife) Talulah Riley (second wife) Grimes (partner) Shivon Zilis (partner)
Related	America PAC Astra Nova School Billionaire space race Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster ElonJet Hyperloop RBG PAC Snailbrook, Texas Texas Institute of Technology and Science
Category

v t e Spacecraft missions to Mars
List of missions to Mars List of Mars orbiters List of artificial objects on Mars
Active	Flybys Psyche (2023, flyby in 2026) Hera (2024, flyby in 2025) Europa Clipper (2024, flyby in 2025) Orbiters 2001 Mars Odyssey Mars Express Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter timeline MAVEN ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Hope Tianwen-1 orbiter Rovers Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory timeline Perseverance Mars 2020 timeline
Past	Flybys Mars 1 Mariner 4 Zond 2 Mariner 6 and 7 Mars 6 Mars 7 Rosetta Dawn Mars Cube One Orbiters Mars 2 Mars 3 Mariner 9 Mars 4 Mars 5 Viking program Viking 1 Viking 2 Phobos program Phobos 1 Phobos 2 Mars Observer Mars Global Surveyor Nozomi Mars Climate Orbiter Mangalyaan Landers Mars 2 Mars 3 Mars 6 Mars 7 Viking 1 Viking 2 Mars Pathfinder Mars Polar Lander / Deep Space 2 Beagle 2 Phoenix ExoMars Schiaparelli InSight Tianwen-1 lander Rovers PrOP-M Sojourner Mars Exploration Rover Spirit timeline Opportunity timeline Zhurong Aircraft Ingenuity helicopter flights Mars 2020
Failed launches Mars 1M No.1 1M No.2 2MV-4 No.1 2MV-3 No.1 Mariner 3 Mars 2M No.521 2M No.522 Mariner 8 Mars 3MS No.170 Mars 96 Fobos-Grunt / Yinghuo-1
Future	Planned EscaPADE (2025) Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) (mid 2020s) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) (2026) Mangalyaan-2 (2026) Tianwen-3 (2028) Rosalind Franklin (2028) MBR Explorer (2028, flyby in 2031) NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return Mars Sample Recovery Helicopters Kazachok Proposed MAGGIE SpaceX Mars program Mars-Grunt
Cancelled or not developed Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey Astrobiology Field Laboratory Beagle 3 Biological Oxidant and Life Detection DePhine Icebreaker Life Marsokhod Mars 4NM & 5NM Mars 5M (Mars-79) Mars-Aster Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C) Mars Geyser Hopper Mars Exploration Ice Mapper Mars One Mars Micro Orbiter Mars Surveyor Lander Mars Telecommunications Orbiter MELOS rover MetNet NetLander Northern Light Next Mars Orbiter PADME Phootprint Sample Collection for Investigation of Mars (SCIM) Sky-Sailor SpaceX Red Dragon Vesta Voyager Mars
Exploration	Concepts Flyby Orbiter Landing Atmospheric entry Rover Aircraft Sample return Human mission Permanent settlement Colonization Terraforming Strategies Mars Scout Program Mars Exploration Program Mars Exploration Joint Initiative Mars Next Generation Advocacy The Mars Project The Case for Mars Inspiration Mars Mars Institute Mars Society Mars race
Missions are ordered by launch date. Sign indicates failure en route or before intended mission data returned. indicates use of the planet as a gravity assist en route to another destination.

• Cars
• Spaceflight

• Individual cars
• Tesla vehicles
• Elon Musk
• Derelict satellites in heliocentric orbit
• Message artifacts
• Spacecraft launched in 2018
• Spacecraft launched by Falcon rockets
• Found object
• Publicity stunts
• Passive satellites
• Space debris
• SpaceX spacecraft