NASA Monitoring Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster En Route To Mars
NASA has added Elon Musk's midnight cherry Tesla Roadster to its database of celestial bodies following the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The car is currently destined for the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter where it will stay indefinitely.
The car joins the solar system's eight planets and their moons, more than 755,000 asteroids, and 3,500 comets in the database which aims to monitor everything up in the night sky. The car and its driver "Starman" can now be found through the online Horizons tool from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab where it is listed as object -143205.
"Dummy payload from first launch of SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle consisting of a standard Tesla Roadster automobile and a space-suit wearing mannequin nicknamed Starman," NASA's official description of the Roadster.
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"Also includes a Hot Wheels toy model Roadster on the car's dash with a mini-Starman inside, a data storage device placed inside the car contains a copy of Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation,' A plaque on the attachment fitting between the Falcon Heavy upper stage and the Tesla is etched with the names of more than 6,000 SpaceX employees," the description continued.
According to the database, the sports car orbited Earth for six hours, then completed its third-stage burn to reach heliocentric orbit. Despite being a demo mission meant to show that the rocket can fire its engines and reach orbit, the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket has generated quite a bit of publicity for SpaceX.
This was partly due to Musk offering his personal 2008 Roadster instead of using a hunk of metal as a dummy payload. While Musk seems optimistic that his car will reach its destination, it will be facing a tough road ahead, no pun intended.
Its path will be filled with micrometeorites and other debris, capable of smashing the car and its helpless driver. However, it will be the extreme radiation that will be car's biggest test. Without an atmosphere to protect it, it's likely that Musk's Roadster will eventually deteriorate.
That being said, the car has already accomplished its mission. By reaching orbit on board the Falcon Heavy rocket, it has proven that SpaceX has the capability to send large payloads to space. And with the return of two of the Falcon Heavy's reusable boosters, the company is paving the way for cheap and reliable space travel.
