{"id":14159,"date":"2017-12-02T22:05:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T14:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/elon-musk-says-spacex-will-try-to-launch-his-tesla-roadster-on-new-heavy-lift-rocket\/"},"modified":"2017-12-02T22:05:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T14:05:58","slug":"elon-musk-says-spacex-will-try-to-launch-his-tesla-roadster-on-new-heavy-lift-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/elon-musk-says-spacex-will-try-to-launch-his-tesla-roadster-on-new-heavy-lift-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk says SpaceX will try to launch his Tesla Roadster on new heavy-lift rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Updated Dec. 2 with further confirmation, and details about the Roadster\u2019s target orbit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The interstage of SpaceX\u2019s first Falcon Heavy rocket pictured inside the company\u2019s factory last year in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted Friday that his red Tesla Roadster will head for deep space on the maiden flight of the company\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket as soon as next month, and do it to the tune of David Bowie\u2019s \u201cSpace Oddity.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it won\u2019t make the trip on battery power.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Falcon rockets burn hydrocarbons for fuel, consuming a grade of highly refined kerosene called RP-1. The rockets\u2019 Merlin engines burn the RP-1 kerosene mixed with super-cold liquid oxygen.<\/p>\n

Musk tweeted Friday night that the Falcon Heavy\u2019s first test flight, scheduled to blast off from Florida\u2019s Space Coast next month, will have his midnight cherry Tesla Roadster on-board.<\/p>\n

The Falcon Heavy\u2019s \u201cpayload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity,\u201d Musk tweeted. \u201cDestination is Mars orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The repurposed car \u201cwill be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn\u2019t blow up on ascent,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s Twitter followers weren\u2019t sure whether to take him seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great part about @elonmusk is that I\u2019m not sure if this is a joke or for real,\u201d tweeted @MikeCharlieGolf.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, unveiled a new Roadster concept car last month. Credit: Tesla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cJust to reiterate, the payload for the first Falcon Heavy rocket will be a Tesla electric car, playing Space Oditty, heading for Mars,\u201d wrote @JC_Channel.<\/p>\n

Apparently confirming his own tweet, Musk replied simply: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joy Dunn, a SpaceX engineer, tweeted: \u201cFalcon Heavy payload has been announced! This is going to be awesome!\u201d She later clarified that the plan was real, writing: \u201cOh this is legit and of course there will be cameras!\u201d<\/p>\n

A third SpaceX official confirmed to Spaceflight Now on Saturday that \u201cthe Roadster to Mars payload is real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future,\u201d Musk tweeted Saturday.<\/p>\n

The payload and destination for SpaceX\u2019s first Falcon Heavy launch has been the subject of speculation.<\/p>\n

Musk told reporters in March that SpaceX would put \u201cthe silliest thing we can imagine\u201d on the first Falcon Heavy flight. The company placed a wheel of cheese on the first flight of its Dragon cargo craft in an ode to the Monty Python comedy group.<\/p>\n

The Tesla Roadster weighs about 2,760 pounds (1,250 kilograms), measures nearly 13 feet (3.9 meters) long and spans about 5.7 feet (1.7 meters) wide, according to Car and Driver magazine. That\u2019s well within the Falcon Heavy\u2019s lift capability to go to Mars.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Artist\u2019s illustration of the Falcon Heavy\u2019s two side-mounted boosters separating from the rocket a few minutes after liftoff. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Musk\u2019s tweet left open the question of whether the Roadster would enter orbit around the red planet, or fly to the distance of Mars\u2019 orbit, perhaps for a flyby. In order to insert itself into orbit around Mars, the car would need a rocket pack to slow down for capture by Martian gravity.<\/p>\n

Ideal Mars launch opportunities only come once every 26 months, when space probes can make the journey in less than a year. The next Mars launch window opens in the spring.<\/p>\n

Launching at another time does not preclude a trip to Mars, although the payload would have to take a longer route, or use a lot more fuel to bend its trajectory and shorten the voyage.<\/p>\n

According to Syfy Wire, Musk told blogger Phil Plait that the Roadster would launch into a \u201ca precessing Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he means by this is what\u2019s sometimes called a Hohmann transfer orbit, an orbit around the Sun that takes it as close to the Sun as Earth and as far out as Mars,\u201d Plait wrote.<\/p>\n

Three rocket boosters based on the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s first stage will power the Falcon Heavy rocket toward space, delivering 5.1 million pounds of thrust from 27 Merlin 1D main engines. Technicians are preparing hardware for the maiden Falcon Heavy launch inside SpaceX\u2019s hangar at launch pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where Apollo moon missions and space shuttles lifted off.<\/p>\n

\u201cFalcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape,\u201d Musk tweeted Friday night. \u201cWill have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX needs the Falcon Heavy to loft the heaviest satellites for commercial and U.S. military customers. It could also hurl large clusters of lighter satellites into orbit to build out new broadband communications networks.<\/p>\n

Musk unveiled the Falcon Heavy rocket in 2011, and proclaimed then the launcher would be ready for blastoff in 2013. SpaceX said it slowed development of the Falcon Heavy to focus on other projects, including the recovery of Falcon 9 rocket stages for reuse, and to resolve technical problems that destroyed two Falcon 9 rockets in 2015 and 2016, one in flight and another on the launch pad.<\/p>\n

If the Roadster reaches Mars, it would be the first SpaceX payload to visit another planet.<\/p>\n

Musk announced in September his updated vision for settling Mars, and announced that SpaceX is working on a giant new rocket dubbed the BFR that could send cargo and crew ships to the red planet, or perhaps the moon if a lunar base becomes reality.<\/p>\n

SpaceX previously planned to dispatch a \u201cRed Dragon\u201d capsule to land on Mars in 2020, but that project was canceled in favor of the larger BFR initiative, which Musk claimed could be ready as soon as 2024, a goal he admitted was \u201caspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Updated Dec. 2 with further confirmation, and details about the Roadster\u2019s target orbit. The interstage of SpaceX\u2019s first Falcon Heavy rocket pictured inside the company\u2019s factory last year in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX. SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted Friday that his red Tesla Roadster will head for deep space on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,1045,678,3036,25,367,1563,316],"class_list":["post-14159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-falcon-heavy","tag-falcon-heavy-demo-flight","tag-launch","tag-mars","tag-solar-system","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}