For sale: Tesla Convertible- as is, where is

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Hey guys, I'm selling my Tesla, but it's sold as-is, where is. It's brand new, but very high mileage. Very clean except for a little stardust. I'm throwing in a free space suit with purchase.

378516


....but seriously, that was a pretty cool stunt. I'm not sure I agree with more space junk out there for legitimate space missions to have to dodge, but it's still cool. I wonder if this all came about because of some drunken conversation with Elon Musk at a bar- "Hey, I bet you can't send your car into space." "Challenge accepted."

[Marshall Harrison]

The impressive part was sticking the simultaneous landings of the two booster rockets.

I grew up on science fiction from Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein etc when rockets had fins and landed on their tails. Impressive feat.

[Malcolm McLeod]

The impressive part was sticking the simultaneous landings of the two booster rockets.

I grew up on science fiction from Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein etc when rockets had fins and landed on their tails. Impressive feat.

^^Analogous to standing at street level, throwing a pencil over the Empire State Building, and landing it on a dinner plate - - standing on the eraser. Impressive +1.

Malcolm - I suspect the car was the only volunteer for the maiden flight. (And I'll buy your car - - if you have the title...?) :cool:

[George Bokros]

Definitely impressive. NASA should learn from that.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

This car will be out there for thousand years!!!

[Pat Barry]

It was the most technologically fantastic spectacle I've ever seen. Perfect execution. All that was missing was for the guy in the Tesla to wave goodbye to earth.

[Jim Becker]

"High Milage" was my very first thought about that car when I originally read it was heading up there. :) But yea, this was a very impressive and successful first launch of that heavy lift system. Even Musk felt there was a good chance it would blow up and they were hoping it wouldn't happen on or near that launch pad, since it's the one they use for regular launches and it's already been outfitted with the walkways for human passengers for future flights. It was great to see the two boosters make successful landings and sad that the main engine ran out of fuel on the way to its own landing and was lost at sea.

[Pat Barry]

"High Milage" was my very first thought about that car when I originally read it was heading up there. :) But yea, this was a very impressive and successful first launch of that heavy lift system. Even Musk felt there was a good chance it would blow up and they were hoping it wouldn't happen on or near that launch pad, since it's the one they use for regular launches and it's already been outfitted with the walkways for human passengers for future flights. It was great to see the two boosters make successful landings and sad that the main engine ran out of fuel on the way to its own landing and was lost at sea.
I hadn't heard that but the live coverage stopped pretty quickly when they got a report from the sea landing barge. I think one of the announcers heard something in her earpiece and then said "oh!" in a concerned voice but then recovered to say there would be later reports on the website.

[Art Mann]

In an interview, Musk stated that this was a first trial run of the rocket and he didn't expect it to be successful. He also mentioned that this rocket may be lifting people to the ISS as early as this year. I am generally put off by his braggadocio but, as someone said, "It ain't braggin' if you can actually do it".

[Jerome Stanek]

That launch made the Tesla the fastest car ever

[Morey St. Denis]

"Analogous to standing at street level, throwing a pencil over the Empire State Building, and landing it on a dinner plate - - standing on the eraser. Impressive +1."

Indeed!.. Scaling in similar fashion, you're in the vicinity of Hartford, CT firing a bundle of three pencils simultaneously that later separate in tandem, two looping around the Empire State spire. Both return precisely to your dinner table near Hartford within 8 minutes and the third pencil makes it part way back from Philadelphia, but splashes eraser first onto a fixed location the size of a tire floating about midway through Long Island Sound. Monumentally Impressive to say the least!..

Here's a view of Launch Complex & "pad " 39A, February 6, 2018, the same site that lofted many an Apollo/Saturn mission (13 in total); including Apollo 8 & Apollo 11, nearly 49 years ago. Also initiated our former Space Shuttle's career with STS-1 Columbia occurring 1981.

[Morey St. Denis]

Falcon Heavy center core did not run out of fuel upon its return from space. It is my understanding that it actually only ran low on ignitor fluid for two of the three engines intending to be repeatedly relit for reentry and landing. There was also frequent throttle variation going on within those nine core engines during the course of that launch and several minutes of spaceflight. Kerosene fuel & LOX propellants also require an ignitor fluid to be squirted into the combustion chamber to initiate the burn. Triethylborane blended with Triethylaluminum (TEB + TEA) is often used for its pyrophoric qualities when mixed with hydrocarbon rocket & former SR-71 jet turbine fuel. Also utilized with the SSMEs. FH booster core returned on target, but smacked into the ocean going about 300 mph (in excess of 400 ft/sec) too fast; fortunately barely missed "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship by about two rocket lengths because it was retro-thrusting with only one engine responding. They'll merely need slightly more ignitor fluid capacity on board and Falcon Heavy should be good for weighty military satellites and further commercial payload certification.

Equally as important; after coasting in high earth orbit nearly six hours, that 2nd stage single Merlin 1D vacuum engine successfully relit after passing through those pesky Van Allen high radiation belts blanketing earth and shoved the SpaceX / Tesla payload onto a heliocentric path shuttling between the orbits of Earth and Mars. That bodes well in the way of verification that the liquid fuel shouldn't freeze nor the LOX vaporize and boil off after equivalent multiple days of sunrise & sunsets.

[Mike Cutler]

Malcolm

Think I'll pass.;)
It was definitely an impressive tech feat, but I disagree with intentionally putting junk into space. I know it's a beautiful car, but it is now just a big hunk of space junk that will have to tracked until we develop the economical ability to retrieve the junk we have already put into space.
I just hope it doesn't start a trend of wealthy narcissists launching "monuments" to their egos into space for eternity.

[Bert Kemp]

While I don't agree with putting junk in space I don't think its anything to worry about. I'm more concerned with all the crap there dumping in the ocean and deserts here where we live. Thats going to be a much bigger problem in the future then space junk.

[Mark Bolton]

I was surprised today to stop for gas at a Sheetz in Buckhannon WV (which is basically in the middle of nowhere) to find one whole side of the parking lot dedicated to about 20 Tesla charging stations. There were two Tesla's plugged in from Ontario Canada (no shock they werent from the US)..

I drive enough daily that I would most definitely pay the money for a self driving Tesla that would allow me to work for my 2 hrs a day daily commute to the shop and then far more hours when out on sales calls.

The world is changing

[Mark Bolton]

The impressive part was sticking the simultaneous landings of the two booster rockets.

I grew up on science fiction from Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein etc when rockets had fins and landed on their tails. Impressive feat.

Watching that literally brought tears to my eyes. The things we are capable of (and will be capable of in the future) are utterly amazing

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I wouldn't be surprised if there is another bar conversation that says "I bet you can't bring it back...."

[Curt Harms]

Hey guys, I'm selling my Tesla, but it's sold as-is, where is. It's brand new, but very high mileage. Very clean except for a little stardust. I'm throwing in a free space suit with purchase.

378516


....but seriously, that was a pretty cool stunt. I'm not sure I agree with more space junk out there for legitimate space missions to have to dodge, but it's still cool. I wonder if this all came about because of some drunken conversation with Elon Musk at a bar- "Hey, I bet you can't send your car into space." "Challenge accepted."

If it's low and slow enough it won't be space junk for long I'd guess.

[Jim Becker]

If it's low and slow enough it won't be space junk for long I'd guess.
It's not really low and slow...it will be looping around the sun on an elliptical orbit that goes out as far as Mars.

[Chuck Wintle]

when the 2 boosters made their landing it was accompanied by a pop-pop noise. was this becuase they broke the sound barrier?

[Marshall Harrison]

when the 2 boosters made their landing it was accompanied by a pop-pop noise. was this becuase they broke the sound barrier?

The news said there were twin sonic booms. Not sure if that was the pop-pop you refer to. But yes breaking the sound barrier creates a sonic boom

[Marshall Harrison]

It's not really low and slow...it will be looping around the sun on an elliptical orbit that goes out as far as Mars.

From what I have heard most scientists think that solar winds will tear it apart within 2 years.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

From what I have heard most scientists think that solar winds will tear it apart within 2 years.

I'm wondering if particles of asteroids- even ones as small as pebbles- will be an issue. I seem to recall reading that it will pass near an asteroid belt on its journey.

[Edwin Santos]

It's not really low and slow...it will be looping around the sun on an elliptical orbit that goes out as far as Mars.

Well Mars orbits the sun at a speed of about 53,000 miles per hour. With its considerably smaller mass I'm not sure what the orbit speed of Mr. Musk's Tesla would be, but I'm with you, it probably won't be low or slow. Although I guess in the world of astronomy, low and slow are relative terms and wouldn't have the same meaning in space that they have to a bunch of fire ants like us. The whole field of astronomy and space exploration is really mind boggling.

[Mark Bolton]

when the 2 boosters made their landing it was accompanied by a pop-pop noise. was this becuase they broke the sound barrier?

https://youtu.be/ImoQqNyRL8Y

[Bruce Page]

https://youtu.be/ImoQqNyRL8Y

That’s a great video. I participated in several rocket launches and I can tell you the sound is enormous. It rattles every fiber of your body. The rockets we flew were bottle rockets compared to the Falcon Heavy.

[Jon Wolfe]

Another case of life imitating art....

https://youtu.be/DWMPe3wF9jQ?t=46

[Malcolm Schweizer]

And now- enter the conspiracy theorists. I love the one where “Rocket Man” is actually a live person drugged by Musk in an elaborate murder scheme.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gy8vqw/spacex-conspiracy-falcon-heavy-tesla?utm_campaign=interest&utm_source=mbfbads&utm_term=6091327386630

[Jim Koepke]

Even cartoonist are getting in to the act:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-news-in-cartoons/ss-BBHuIzA?fullscreen=true#image=5

This is a compilation of cartoons and my attempt to find a link to the origin of the David Horsey drawing was unsuccessful. Currently it is in window 5 it will likely be a few more windows deeper tomorrow or the next day. Just keep clicking on the right side of the window until you get to the one that has to do with this thread.

jtk

[Curt Harms]

It's not really low and slow...it will be looping around the sun on an elliptical orbit that goes out as far as Mars.

Ah, I assumed it would be in earth orbit.

[Curt Harms]

Watching that literally brought tears to my eyes. The things we are capable of (and will be capable of in the future) are utterly amazing

Very true, but I also think of this thought from Edward O. Wilson:


What Is Human Nature? Paleolithic Emotions, Medieval Institutions, God-Like Technology

Let's hope our Paleolithic emotions don't cause us to misuse our God-Like technology.

[Jim Becker]

Ah, I assumed it would be in earth orbit.
A secondary part of the test mission...the primary being lifting off without blowing up...was to insert the test payload into a track that would be typical for sending humans to Mars. They nailed the primary and largely did fine with the second, although my understanding is that for whatever reason, the track isn't quite what was intended and the encounter with Mars will not be as close as they wanted it to be. This time.

[Jim Koepke]

Frank Sinatra and Fly Me to the Moon comes to mind.

What next, Let's Go on a Cruise Around Mars to Celebrate This Love of Ours?

jtk

[Myk Rian]

This car will be out there for thousand years!!!
More like Millions of years.
As I understand it, they needed something for payload weight, and since there was nothing available for a test flight, he had his car bolted to it.
It will be placed beyond Mars, near the asteroid belt.

[Jim Becker]

Here's the expected eliptical path from Musk's tweet:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVZ0h3YW4AIc-9w.jpg

[Bruce Page]

Here's the expected eliptical path from Musk's tweet:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVZ0h3YW4AIc-9w.jpg

Here's the pic.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I love how one inch equals 74,798,935 km on that graphic. There's a scale you don't often work in.

[Pat Barry]

I love how one inch equals 74,798,935 km on that graphic. There's a scale you don't often work in.
Equally crazy how they mix Imperial and metric on the same chart.

[Myk Rian]

I'd wager it's going to be crushed in the asteroid belt, and get stuck there on a big rock.

[Curt Harms]

I'd wager it's going to be crushed in the asteroid belt, and get stuck there on a big rock.

"Hello? Triple A?"

Here is some speculation about its likely fate:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/15/orbital_calculations_for_elon_musks_tesla_roadster/