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Starman, the SpaceX manikin visiting the solar system, may soon attract a visitor.
Elon Musk, CEO of the space company, said Sunday on Twitter that the company could launch a small spacecraft to catch up with Starman and take pictures "in a few years. "Musk, who regularly gives a virtual boost to future fan ideas as full-fledged projects, made no other suggestion as to how the mission might work.
A few hours later, "Starman" made its first complete orbit around the sun, 18 months after its first launch from Earth. It is unclear what condition the model is in, whether it is a tour of Mars in the red Tesla Roadster in near perfect condition or getting worse. Musk's mission could lift the veil on one of SpaceX's most bizarre launches.
SpaceX: Who is Starman?
The "Starman" was perhaps one of the most visible features of the inaugural launch of Falcon Heavy by SpaceX. The test mission, which took place in February 2018, marked the start of the operations of the most powerful rocket in the world, which currently hosts launches. This 27-engine monster, consisting of essentially three Falcon 9 fuses fused into a single vehicle, generates more than five million pounds of thrust on takeoff. Only the NASA Saturn V has ever beaten this number, and the latter flew in 1973.
To mark the occasion, Musk chose to send his own red Tesla Roadster electric car as a freight test. The manikin on the front seat was equipped with a SpaceX space suit. In the audio system of the car, David Bowie's "Space Oddity" played in a loop.
The car was dotted with many references to pop culture and science fiction. The words "do not panic" were written on the dashboard, referring to Douglas Adams. Guide to hitchhikers in the galaxy series. A "5D Quartz Laser Storage Device", produced in collaboration with the Arch Mission Foundation, contained Isaac Asimov Foundation trilogy book. The latter company should work with Hypergiant Galactic on the use of this technology to create a backup of 30 million pages of human knowledge in an interplanetary Internet.
Musk told reporters before the launch that he was "tripping the bullets" about the announcement:
After that, it will remain in the space of millions or even billions of years. Maybe discovered by a future extraterrestrial race thinking what on earth, what were these guys doing? Did they love this car? Why do they have a small car in the car? And it's really going to confuse them.
SpaceX: Where is the car now?
Starman, who has just completed his first full journey around the sun, was followed on the WhereIsRoadster website. Although the vehicle returned to its starting point, it took 18 months to complete its orbit, which means that the Earth is 185 million kilometers from its starting point. Mars is a little closer, at about 69 million kilometers. The car is heading to Mars at a staggering speed of 25,678 miles at the time.
If it was a land vehicle, the Roadster would be the fastest car in the world. It is currently traveling at a speed of 75,146 km / h. It's unlikely that a Tesla store is looking at the car. On its route of 763 million kilometers, it exceeded the guarantee of 36,000 kilometers 21,000 times. This is enough to travel 33 times all the roads of the planet.
Since the launch of "Starman", the Falcon Heavy has carried out two commercial missions. The Arabsat-6A commercial satellite was launched in April 2019. The STP-2 mission was launched two months later, in June, and reused the bilateral boosters recovered from the previous launch.
The rocket may well be preparing for more commercial missions from Viasat and the Air Force, but the results of its first mission may not be clear until SpaceX re-captures Starman images in a few years.
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