Starman makes his first fly-by of Mars

[glend (Glen)]

Remember Starman in his Tesla? Launched by Elon Musk as a demo flight in 2018. Well he has now reached Mars:

https://www.space.com/amp/spacex-sta...sla-mars-flyby

Perhaps one day Martian colonists might brake him into a parking orbit around Mars as a memorial, better than burning up in the atmo of Venus or Earth.

[blindman]

Aha, or just drive it on Mars for fun. It was just agit prop for Tesla....

[glend (Glen)]

Originally Posted by blindman

Aha, or just drive it on Mars for fun. It was just agit prop for Tesla....

There will be other Teslas on Mars, Musk has plans to built Martian rovers out of Tesla parts. After all they are electric vehicles and the Star ships actually are already using Tesla batteries, and motors to drive the control systems.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Wow ..Less than 5 million miles .. hardly a flyby.

[glend (Glen)]

Originally Posted by Hans Tucker

Wow ..Less than 5 million miles .. hardly a flyby.

I would suggest that the flight path calculations and initial burn out of Earth orbit, was calculated to not actually intercept Mars - but just get close. Most flight paths have correction burns at some point to fine tune intercept. SpaceX has an online calculator running but I do not think there is someone sitting at a console monitoring the payload. It's a dumb load, no thrusters as far as I know, strictly at the mercy of gravitational forces from now on. Well that is until Elon sends a Starship out to snag it, next time it gets near Mars.

[Sunfish (Ray)]

More space junk.

[TrevorW]

Rich mans folly

[cannon_gray (Cannon Gray)]

They say that in 2091, the Tesla Roadster will fly as close as possible to the Earth, for those who want to catch an electric car for resale at some auction - this will be an ideal opportunity if, before that time, space does not destroy the car.