Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, launched an old Tesla Roadster electric sports car with a spacesuit-wearing dummy named "Starman" into space two years ago.
The vehicle was launched into space in February 2018 on the first Falcon Heavy rocket. The car also carried a Hot Wheels model of itself with a miniature Starman inside. In storage, it holds a copy of the sci-fi novels "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. The car's speakers even blasted the song "Space Oddity" by David Bowie after launch.
Tesla was supposed to enter a circular orbit between Mars and the Sun. But the mission failed, and the car was far beyond the Martian orbit. Then, the car's trajectory passed the orbit of Mars, but not as close as planned.
Starman, last seen leaving Earth, made its first close approach with Mars today—within 0.05 astronomical units, or under 5 million miles, of the Red Planet pic.twitter.com/gV8barFTm7
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 7, 2020
McDowell, the astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, working on Chandra and quasars and commenting on space launches and space activities, shared with Twitter users a drawing showing the trajectories of Mars and Musk's car. According to the expert's calculations, Tesla flew 7,41 million kilometers from the Red Planet. It is the maximum distance a car could approach Mars.
Falcon/Tesla passed 7.41 million km from Mars at 0625 UTC Oct 7 pic.twitter.com/LeFbWTOoli
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) October 7, 2020
To find out where the Tesla Roadster will fly and where it has already been, visit the special website. It is enough to set a specific date. In August 2019, for example, a Tesla electric car with a Starman passenger made its first complete revolution around the Sun.
