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Sorry for the stupid question (I wasn't following this event): so it's a _real_ car? inside an aircraft (which i imagine the inside is like military cargo ship

Sorry for the stupid question (I wasn't following this event): so it's a _real_ car? inside an aircraft (which i imagine the inside is like military cargo ship as seen in movies)?

Joe-Z 9y ago
Yes it is. I think it's also Elon's very own :) And yes, it was carried into orbit with the upper stage of the Falcon Heavy.
kowdermeister 9y ago
Yes, it's a real car and it's not inside anything. There's a thruster attached to it and that's it. I made a mashup which adds some music to it :) http://awesomestarman.glitch.me http://awesomestarman.glitch.me (autoplay audio, works on desktop only)
- maxerickson 9y ago
  It's rather the other way round, the car is attached to the front end of the second stage. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/25016/what-all-is-included-in-the-contraption-around-star-man https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/25016/what-all-is-...
  - bdamm 9y ago
    And a payload adapter, right? I hope the mass of the payload adapter is significant, e.g. they buried a block of concrete in there.
mapt 9y ago
The first few launches of a new vehicle are risky. Even some of the most mature launch platforms still fail 2-10% of the time after hundreds of launches, but a new platform needs a period to discover all the failure modes that they didn't hypothesize. Usually for the very first proving launch, commercial customers don't want to send anything, and insurers refuse to touch them. So launch providers typically send a block of concrete, or something similar, and call it a 'Mass Simulator', to prove that the launch vehicle can function with a load that heavy. Elon Musk literally thought 'Hey, the Tesla Roadster I've been driving would be a cool thing to send into space as a mass simulator.' And so he did. With a mannequin inside a production Tesla spacesuit. Blaring David Bowie the whole way. Aiming roughly at Mars and burning until the propellant runs out. Starman will be in heliocentric orbit indefinitely.
- dhimes 9y ago
  Until it comes back, crashes into Earth and sends mankind the way of the dinosaurs...
  - PerryCox 9y ago
    It doesn't have enough mass to do anything like that. It'll burn up in the atmosphere if it does come back to Earth. Currently projections of it coming back to Earth in the next million years are at 6%.[1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk's_Tesla_Roadster#Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk's_Tesla_Roadster#Fut...
  - oh_sigh 9y ago
    Starman has no more kinetic energy than was put into it by the rockets, so it crashing back on to earth would cause a smaller explosion than what would have happened if the rocket just blew up on the launch pad.
    - M_Bakhtiari 9y ago
      What about gravity assists, harvesting kinetic energy from other planets? It would make for a good supervillain story, intentionally ramming the Earth with a gravity assisted projectile, but a terrible weapon system. Any conflict likely being already over by the time it does its tour of the solar system and arrives back, so it's probably better to just use the rocket fuel to build a conventional bomb. Or better yet, use nukes.
      - dhimes 9y ago
        Yes, oh_sigh misses a little but mine was just a humorous comment anyway so no sense going down the rabbit hole here lol.
- JustSomeNobody 9y ago
  Hopefully they took the opportunity to put some sensors in the space suit also. I'm not sure what data they could provide without there being a real person[0] in there, but surely something. [0] Sorry Starman.
codeulike 9y ago
You should watch the launch, its probably one of the most interesting engineering projects of the last few years. https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=21m31s https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=21m31s
bdamm 9y ago
At launch the car was inside an aircraft, but once in space the aircraft ("fairing") was separated from the rocket, leaving the "car" in space. And by "car" I mean a rocket engine, thrusters, control unit, fuel, payload adapter, and oh yes, a car, all connected and hurtling through space.

Sorry for the stupid question (I wasn't following this event): so it's a _real_ car? inside an aircraft (which i imagine the inside is like military cargo ship as seen in movies)?

Joe-Z 9y ago

Yes it is. I think it's also Elon's very own :) And yes, it was carried into orbit with the upper stage of the Falcon Heavy.

kowdermeister 9y ago

Yes, it's a real car and it's not inside anything. There's a thruster attached to it and that's it. I made a mashup which adds some music to it :) http://awesomestarman.glitch.me http://awesomestarman.glitch.me (autoplay audio, works on desktop only)

maxerickson 9y ago
It's rather the other way round, the car is attached to the front end of the second stage. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/25016/what-all-is-included-in-the-contraption-around-star-man https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/25016/what-all-is-...
- bdamm 9y ago
  And a payload adapter, right? I hope the mass of the payload adapter is significant, e.g. they buried a block of concrete in there.

mapt 9y ago

The first few launches of a new vehicle are risky. Even some of the most mature launch platforms still fail 2-10% of the time after hundreds of launches, but a new platform needs a period to discover all the failure modes that they didn't hypothesize. Usually for the very first proving launch, commercial customers don't want to send anything, and insurers refuse to touch them. So launch providers typically send a block of concrete, or something similar, and call it a 'Mass Simulator', to prove that the launch vehicle can function with a load that heavy. Elon Musk literally thought 'Hey, the Tesla Roadster I've been driving would be a cool thing to send into space as a mass simulator.' And so he did. With a mannequin inside a production Tesla spacesuit. Blaring David Bowie the whole way. Aiming roughly at Mars and burning until the propellant runs out. Starman will be in heliocentric orbit indefinitely.

dhimes 9y ago
Until it comes back, crashes into Earth and sends mankind the way of the dinosaurs...
- PerryCox 9y ago
  It doesn't have enough mass to do anything like that. It'll burn up in the atmosphere if it does come back to Earth. Currently projections of it coming back to Earth in the next million years are at 6%.[1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk's_Tesla_Roadster#Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk's_Tesla_Roadster#Fut...
- oh_sigh 9y ago
  Starman has no more kinetic energy than was put into it by the rockets, so it crashing back on to earth would cause a smaller explosion than what would have happened if the rocket just blew up on the launch pad.
  - M_Bakhtiari 9y ago
    What about gravity assists, harvesting kinetic energy from other planets? It would make for a good supervillain story, intentionally ramming the Earth with a gravity assisted projectile, but a terrible weapon system. Any conflict likely being already over by the time it does its tour of the solar system and arrives back, so it's probably better to just use the rocket fuel to build a conventional bomb. Or better yet, use nukes.
    - dhimes 9y ago
      Yes, oh_sigh misses a little but mine was just a humorous comment anyway so no sense going down the rabbit hole here lol.
JustSomeNobody 9y ago
Hopefully they took the opportunity to put some sensors in the space suit also. I'm not sure what data they could provide without there being a real person[0] in there, but surely something. [0] Sorry Starman.

codeulike 9y ago

You should watch the launch, its probably one of the most interesting engineering projects of the last few years. https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=21m31s https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=21m31s

bdamm 9y ago

At launch the car was inside an aircraft, but once in space the aircraft ("fairing") was separated from the rocket, leaving the "car" in space. And by "car" I mean a rocket engine, thrusters, control unit, fuel, payload adapter, and oh yes, a car, all connected and hurtling through space.