For sale: Tesla Convertible- as is, where is

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.

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....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."

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.

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Originally Posted by Marshall K 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.

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^^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:

Definitely impressive. NASA should learn from that.

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

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.

"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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.

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".

That launch made the Tesla the fastest car ever

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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