[ad_1]
It has been about a year and a half since Elon Musk's Cherry Red Tesla Roadster was sent into space at the top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The launch unfolded flawlessly and was a major step for SpaceX, marking the first time that the Falcon Heavy was pulled up to the sky.
Several months later, the Tesla sports car completed its first tour of the Sun. Thanks for the convenient site Where is Roadster We can see exactly where Elon Musk's car is at all times, based on its Sun-centered orbit, as well as the number of kilometers away from the Earth and other important places.
As the website shows, the Roadster and its "pilot" Starman are currently about 185 million kilometers from the Earth and about 68 million kilometers from Mars. Its current position is just beyond the spot in Earth's orbit where the Falcon Heavy projected it into space towards Mars.
The scientific community was seriously concerned about the possibility that the Roadster crushes directly on Mars, possibly contaminating the planet with Earth's bacteria and making it more difficult to determine the story of life on Earth. March (if any). .
Fortunately, this has not been the case and, from the observations, it appears that the vehicle will continue to sail around the Sun in the near future. However, it will not last forever, and it is still possible that the car and its unfortunate passenger impact the Earth or another nearby planet before it has a chance to be swallowed by the Sun itself.
At this point, it is unclear what condition the vehicle is in, but it is likely that its bright red finish has been significantly altered during its year in space. None of the cameras connected to the Roadster returned images shortly after launch. So we have no idea of the resistance of the first car in space.
Image source: SpaceX
[ad_2]
Source link