Elon Musk's space car is headed for a hell of a crash a few million years down the road, a new study suggests.
The Tesla Roadster and its driver, a mannequin named Starman, launched on the maiden flight of SpaceX's huge Falcon Heavy rocket last week. The car is currently looping around the sun on an elliptical orbit that takes it a little beyond Mars at its farthest point, and back to Earth's orbital distance at its closest.
A team of researchers wanted to know the Roadster's ultimate fate, so they performed a series of computer simulations tracking the car's path through the solar system over the next 3 million years.
This modeling work gives the Roadster a 6 percent chance of crashing into Earth in the next 1 million years and a 2.5 percent chance of hitting Venus during that same stretch. The car will probably slam into one of those two worlds at some point in the not-too-distant future (well, cosmologically speaking, anyway), the researchers said.
Benson, Arizona, blew warm wind through your hair. My body flies the galaxy, my heart longs to be there . . .
I still play that song on my iPod.
The Tesla's more immediate fate is to be roasted by unfiltered solar radiation. The tires, upholstery, and carbon-fiber parts will disintegrate, and the paintjob will be obliterated.
The Tesla's more immediate fate is to be roasted by unfiltered solar radiation. The tires, upholstery, and carbon-fiber parts will disintegrate, and the paintjob will be obliterated.
I was just thinking. Can you imagine a re-imagined version of ST:TMP, but, instead of a Voyager satellite sitting in the highchair, the crew of the Enterprise ended up facing a Tesla Roadster? What a missed opportunity!
The Tesla's more immediate fate is to be roasted by unfiltered solar radiation. The tires, upholstery, and carbon-fiber parts will disintegrate, and the paintjob will be obliterated.
I was just thinking. Can you imagine a re-imagined version of ST:TMP, but, instead of a Voyager satellite sitting in the highchair, the crew of the Enterprise ended up facing a Tesla Roadster? What a missed opportunity!
Voyager did something similar.....they came across an old Ford pickup truck floating through the Delta Quadrant.
Benson, Arizona, blew warm wind through your hair. My body flies the galaxy, my heart longs to be there . . .
I still play that song on my iPod.
The Tesla's more immediate fate is to be roasted by unfiltered solar radiation. The tires, upholstery, and carbon-fiber parts will disintegrate, and the paintjob will be obliterated.
I wonder how the vacuum of space would affect the vehicle. I mean it won't just be roasted but frozen too depending on its orientation and trajectory. Are the materials all that different from other space craft and space stations?
After all the radiation from Jupiter would kill a human, yet our space crafts work fine within it vicinity.
Are the materials all that different from other space craft and space stations?
After all the radiation from Jupiter would kill a human, yet our space crafts work fine within it vicinity.
Yes, the car is made of materials that won't hold up in space, apart from the steel and aluminum of the frame.
And spacecraft at Jupiter do suffer from harsh radiation (caused by solar wind interacting with the planet's magnetosphere). Electronics have to be shielded for a fighting chance to function:
Are the materials all that different from other space craft and space stations?
After all the radiation from Jupiter would kill a human, yet our space crafts work fine within it vicinity.
Yes, the car is made of materials that won't hold up in space, apart from the steel and aluminum of the frame.
And spacecraft at Jupiter do suffer from harsh radiation (caused by solar wind interacting with the planet's magnetosphere). Electronics have to be shielded for a fighting chance to function:
And spacecraft at Jupiter do suffer from harsh radiation (caused by solar wind interacting with the planet's magnetosphere). Electronics have to be shielded for a fighting chance to function:
Juno has been sending nice 'oil painting' renderings of the surface. I do hope they are getting 'soundings' from further inside the planet. That is really what Juno is about, so I do hope none of the probe's instrumentation has been affected by whatever it is that has 'glitched' the mission so far.
I doubt the Roadster will ever be seen again, unless a future mission comes across it by chance, or rendezvous takes place due to fortuitous circumstances. It would be interesting to see how the seat fabrics and non-metallic furnishings etc. cope with zero atmosphere and solar radiation. In the last 'Odyssey' novel, Frank Poole's body was found by an expedition around 3001.
Maybe Mike should have stuck with his Steam Shovel instead. That flat-earther and his steam rocket made it into the atmosphere...1900 feet (not enough baking soda?). Gotta give him credit for building and flying in it. He was heard muttering afterwards, "Shoulda used Cavorite."
Alas, Mike and his steam powered dream have flown for the last time. An accident or sabotage? Was he getting too close to the truth? And who will feed his cats now?
