Starman Heads to Space in a Tesla Car

[zorgon]

Well it looks like Elon Musk agrees with us...

"...it looks so fake"

[spacemaverick]

We are told that there are millions of satellites out there, tons of space debris, UFO of all kinds.. and stars Watch any NASA ISS video and there is all sorts of debris (or "UFO's") floating around... Yet in this car video... it is CLEAN.. Nothing... not one bit of space debris, not one satellite, not one space station, not one secret space craft, not one UFO... nothing, nada, zip. No stars not even one bright one... THAT is why it looks fake... it is way to CLEAN. I am NOT saying it didn't happen... just that the video looks fake

Hate to burst your bubble on this one, but a friend of mine who works for SpaceX saw it placed on top of the launch vehicle.

[ArMaP]

And then there is THIS 

If the camera is fixed to the same support as the car it's obvious the car wouldn't move if there was any flaw in the image flow, we can jump several frames and the car will be in the same position.

[easynow]

Haha ... and there's also this ...



https://twitter.com/ufoofinterest/status/962089602717757445

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVoHX7-WAAAv8iQ.jpg:large

[micjer]

If it were real, what is keeping the car from rotating and flipping around.  It stays in perfect view.

Also I don`t think the shadows are right.  For the sun to be illuminating the earth entirely, shouldn`t spaceman be totally illuminated also.  I feel there should be partial darkness on earth for the direction of the shadow on spaceman.

I am not saying it is not up there, just feel the photos are fake.

[Titan]

The cameras are in fixed locations and the car is on a mount.  The car will never move in relation to the camera.

What I'm curious about is why various components of the car were not quickly destroyed by the sun.
Space is cold but isn't direct sunlight in the vacuum of space still incredibly hot?
The car has no heat shielding so wouldn't the direct sunlight very quickly fade the paint and melt the synthetic materials that make up the interior?

Obviously I'm lacking knowledge here so my queries reflect that but I am curious how that works.

[Titan]

micjer, here's a picture of the thing the car and cameras are attached to

[micjer]

Thanks.  That makes more sense. 

[ArMaP]

What I'm curious about is why various components of the car were not quickly destroyed by the sun.
Space is cold but isn't direct sunlight in the vacuum of space still incredibly hot?
The car has no heat shielding so wouldn't the direct sunlight very quickly fade the paint and melt the synthetic materials that make up the interior?

Good question.

I don't think the paint would be much affected, as it's very reflective, but plastic is a different thing, although there are some kinds of plastic that can withstand high temperatures and even direct flame.

[space otter]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-is-keeping-tabs-on-elon-musks-tesla-roadster/ar-BBIXHGc?li=BBnb7Kz

NASA is keeping tabs on Elon Musk's Tesla roadster
CNN CNN
Jackie Wattles
18 hrs ago

parts of the article say:

> Astronomers aim to keep tabs on everything up in the night sky. A NASAdatabase includes our solar system's eight planets and their moons, more than 755,000 asteroids, 3,500 comets -- and, as of this week, one cherry red sports car that belonged to a Silicon Valley billionaire.

> "We need to have it in our artificial object catalog so that we don't confuse it with an asteroid discovery in the future," NASA spokesperson Dwayne Brown said in an email.

The roadster is now officially labeled a Near-Earth Object, which is a designation NASA gives to objects that can travel relatively close to our home planet. (Don't worry, the odds of the car colliding with Earth anytime soon are very, very small.)

> The Tesla now has it's own entry in Horizons, a database run by the Solar System Dynamics group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

> The Tesla is listed as object -143205, "SpaceX Roadster (spacecraft) (Tesla)."
  To view a simulation of the Tesla's orbit (based on the data in
  Horizons), go to OrbitSimulator.com and search for "roadster."
http://orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimulatorCloud/simulations/1436303468965_orbitViewer.html

also

>  Behind the wheel is Starman, a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit. SpaceX also hid a few "Easter eggs" in the car.

"You might also catch a glimpse of a smaller passenger, which is a tiny little Hot Wheels roadster, carrying a tiny little Starman," Lauren Lyons, a SpaceX engineer, said during the mission's webcast.

Also on board the Tesla is a durable storage device, called an Arch, loaded with the text of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" sci-fi trilogy. The names of over 6,000 SpaceX employees are also etched onto some hardware below the car.

[The Seeker]

[The Seeker]

The Science Channel reported earlier this week that Starman and the roadster have completed one full orbit around the sun after 557 days in space...

any data out there to confirm this?

[ArMaP]

From what I have seen, those are the result of calculations made when it started its heliocentric orbit.

As it is too small to track visually and is not transmitting any radio signal they can only get a theoretical position.

As far as I understand it.

[spacemaverick]

http://www.youtube.com/spacex

The last stage booster is still attached to it.  Just for information, here is SpaceX Youtube channel.  The booster attached gives it a much larger mass to track.  Each piece of hardware in space is tracked so space commands know where all things are located.  They have to have this when they launch other satellites into space, otherwise, things would be bumping into each other up there.  Look at the Youtube video about the Tesla and you will see booster still attached.

[spacemaverick]

As far as the question as to whether they launched it into space, my friend at SpaceX saw it placed at the top of the rocket and launched.  The greatest majority of their fabrication is made in-house which makes it easier regarding quality control for their space vehicles.  No waiting on subcontractors.  They are already working on a craft to go to Mars and flight to the moon.