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Can anyone say what they will do during the first real launch? Where would they be trying to go to? How does a test like that work? I love space, I just have no

Can anyone say what they will do during the first real launch? Where would they be trying to go to? How does a test like that work? I love space, I just have no idea how they actually would do a test of that magnitude.

phpnode 9y ago
They will launch Musk's Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun, where it will continue orbiting for hundreds of millions of years.
- phkahler 9y ago
  >> They will launch Musk's Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun, where it will continue orbiting for hundreds of millions of years. Good god that's funny. I didn't realize the roadster was going anywhere, so it seemed stupid. But just imagine once people forget about this in 50 years. Perhaps we even have people on mars. But every few years someone post to the equivalent of HN a link to a wikipedia article about this car orbiting the sun... Or what if modern society suffers a setback (an actual nuclear war or something) and knowledge of this is forgotten and centuries hence, people redevelop technology and get images of it. Best joke ever.
  - Banthum 9y ago
    Wouldn't be the first time we rediscovered something we shot out there and sorta forgot about. If I recall correctly, a few years ago an astronomer detected something drifting pretty far away with weird visual characteristics. It turned out to be a big piece of metal discarded from one of the Apollo missions, painted white, still tumbling through space.
  - indubitable 9y ago
    Or we succeed with the path we're starting to tread. And in less than a century there's a museum built around the car where people of all sorts, some perhaps even born on different planets, are free to visit and observe what would be utterly symbolic of the advent of private industry and deep space.
JshWright 9y ago
The first launch will be a "dummy" payload (nothing a customer is paying for). Elon has said on Twitter that they will be launching his Telsa Roadster out past Mars (there has been some discussion about how serious he was in this claim, but the general consensus among people who are pretty well connected with SpaceX is that he was indeed serious).
- ufmace 9y ago
  You gotta wonder about that. I'd sure like to see some pictures of a Tesla Roadster being integrated into the payload section of the rocket. On the mars orbit thing - I think we have people who try to make sure that we don't contaminate Mars with Earth bacteria any more than we can avoid. You would think people would take a dim view of sticking a random car in Mars orbit, where it will probably decay and crash to the surface eventually.
  - d883kd8 9y ago
    It's not going to be in Mars orbit as there will be no insertion burn. It's a Mars flyby after which it will remain in solar orbit for the foreseeable future.
  - sfifs 9y ago
    > I think we have people who try to make sure that we don't contaminate Mars with Earth bacteria any more than we can avoid. Given Elon Musk's goal is explicitly to colonize Mars, this is probably the least of his worries.
    - ufmace 9y ago
      That makes me wonder too - if he has the money and the rockets, can he just go ahead and set up a colony on Mars, or will some Government or combination of Governments object? Do the people of Earth generally have a right to have some level of say in who can set up a colony on Mars and what they can do with it, or can a couple of dozen rich guys just do whatever they feel like?
mabbo 9y ago
They're going to launch Elon Musk's Telsa Roadster into orbit of the sun, possibly to Mars orbit. I'm not even joking. That's the goal.
- lscharen 9y ago
  I often think of this kind of whimsical angle when I read other news stories about various archaeological and historical discoveries. There’s always so much discussion on how a particular statue is “the cultural center of the community” or that a jeweled box was of “great religious significance”. How do we know that the Elon Musk of 3000BC didn’t just build a big obelisk for the lulz? Probably a bigger question of the problems of inferring great significance from extremely few samples...
  - mstade 9y ago
    I’ve thought the same. There are these rock carvings from forever ago around here, and whenever somebody visits who’s never seen something like that before I just say they are probably tweets from forever ago. “This one over here is what someone had for lunch. I think ‘twas chicken.” That sort of thing.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    I agree. On a related note, I still believe this to be most plausible explanation of the Voynich Manuscript: https://xkcd.com/593/ https://xkcd.com/593/
    - deleted 9y ago
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    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- crispyambulance 9y ago
  Yep. He said "Mars transfer orbit." I find it disappointing, however, that a worthy scientific payload isn't being launched. There was a late cancellation of a moon orbiter mission a few years back because of European Space Agency budget concerns (http://www.esa.int/Education/ESA_concludes_student_ESMO_Moon_orbiter_project http://www.esa.int/Education/ESA_concludes_student_ESMO_Moon...). Could they not have adapted something for a Mars mission? Seems a waste to send an automobile advertisement into orbit around Mars for eternity.
_ph_ 9y ago
The test itself is to launch the second stage towards the orbeit. The big question is, can they make the three cores work as well, as the single F9 core does? As they have excessive load capacity for the second stage with this test mission, but no commecial cargo to transport, if Elons tweets are to believed, they plan to send his 2008 Tesla Roadster into a Mars orbit. Beyond winning any award for sillyness, if SpaceX manages to do that, it would be the first private mission to the Mars orbit, which would be another big feat.

phpnode 9y ago

They will launch Musk's Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun, where it will continue orbiting for hundreds of millions of years.

phkahler 9y ago
>> They will launch Musk's Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun, where it will continue orbiting for hundreds of millions of years. Good god that's funny. I didn't realize the roadster was going anywhere, so it seemed stupid. But just imagine once people forget about this in 50 years. Perhaps we even have people on mars. But every few years someone post to the equivalent of HN a link to a wikipedia article about this car orbiting the sun... Or what if modern society suffers a setback (an actual nuclear war or something) and knowledge of this is forgotten and centuries hence, people redevelop technology and get images of it. Best joke ever.
- Banthum 9y ago
  Wouldn't be the first time we rediscovered something we shot out there and sorta forgot about. If I recall correctly, a few years ago an astronomer detected something drifting pretty far away with weird visual characteristics. It turned out to be a big piece of metal discarded from one of the Apollo missions, painted white, still tumbling through space.
- indubitable 9y ago
  Or we succeed with the path we're starting to tread. And in less than a century there's a museum built around the car where people of all sorts, some perhaps even born on different planets, are free to visit and observe what would be utterly symbolic of the advent of private industry and deep space.

JshWright 9y ago

The first launch will be a "dummy" payload (nothing a customer is paying for). Elon has said on Twitter that they will be launching his Telsa Roadster out past Mars (there has been some discussion about how serious he was in this claim, but the general consensus among people who are pretty well connected with SpaceX is that he was indeed serious).

ufmace 9y ago
You gotta wonder about that. I'd sure like to see some pictures of a Tesla Roadster being integrated into the payload section of the rocket. On the mars orbit thing - I think we have people who try to make sure that we don't contaminate Mars with Earth bacteria any more than we can avoid. You would think people would take a dim view of sticking a random car in Mars orbit, where it will probably decay and crash to the surface eventually.
- d883kd8 9y ago
  It's not going to be in Mars orbit as there will be no insertion burn. It's a Mars flyby after which it will remain in solar orbit for the foreseeable future.
- sfifs 9y ago
  > I think we have people who try to make sure that we don't contaminate Mars with Earth bacteria any more than we can avoid. Given Elon Musk's goal is explicitly to colonize Mars, this is probably the least of his worries.
  - ufmace 9y ago
    That makes me wonder too - if he has the money and the rockets, can he just go ahead and set up a colony on Mars, or will some Government or combination of Governments object? Do the people of Earth generally have a right to have some level of say in who can set up a colony on Mars and what they can do with it, or can a couple of dozen rich guys just do whatever they feel like?

mabbo 9y ago

They're going to launch Elon Musk's Telsa Roadster into orbit of the sun, possibly to Mars orbit. I'm not even joking. That's the goal.

lscharen 9y ago
I often think of this kind of whimsical angle when I read other news stories about various archaeological and historical discoveries. There’s always so much discussion on how a particular statue is “the cultural center of the community” or that a jeweled box was of “great religious significance”. How do we know that the Elon Musk of 3000BC didn’t just build a big obelisk for the lulz? Probably a bigger question of the problems of inferring great significance from extremely few samples...
- mstade 9y ago
  I’ve thought the same. There are these rock carvings from forever ago around here, and whenever somebody visits who’s never seen something like that before I just say they are probably tweets from forever ago. “This one over here is what someone had for lunch. I think ‘twas chicken.” That sort of thing.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  I agree. On a related note, I still believe this to be most plausible explanation of the Voynich Manuscript: https://xkcd.com/593/ https://xkcd.com/593/
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
crispyambulance 9y ago
Yep. He said "Mars transfer orbit." I find it disappointing, however, that a worthy scientific payload isn't being launched. There was a late cancellation of a moon orbiter mission a few years back because of European Space Agency budget concerns (http://www.esa.int/Education/ESA_concludes_student_ESMO_Moon_orbiter_project http://www.esa.int/Education/ESA_concludes_student_ESMO_Moon...). Could they not have adapted something for a Mars mission? Seems a waste to send an automobile advertisement into orbit around Mars for eternity.

_ph_ 9y ago

The test itself is to launch the second stage towards the orbeit. The big question is, can they make the three cores work as well, as the single F9 core does? As they have excessive load capacity for the second stage with this test mission, but no commecial cargo to transport, if Elons tweets are to believed, they plan to send his 2008 Tesla Roadster into a Mars orbit. Beyond winning any award for sillyness, if SpaceX manages to do that, it would be the first private mission to the Mars orbit, which would be another big feat.