Falcon Heavy Demo Mission Payload Discussion

[vaporcobra]

You were spot on, Helo And we don't even need to rely on Eric's internal source, we have official confirmation in a subtweet from SpaceX's head of New Product Introduction, Joy Dunn.

It's both "legit" and will include cameras

https://twitter.com/RocketJoy/status/936786839268032513

[speedevil]

As a sort-of-off/on-topic musing - I wonder if Tesla will pay something for the advertising.
Could be not quite zero worth in ads, however it goes.

[rakaydos]

Mars ORBIT is interesting. What kind of breaking rocket is planned?

Or is it an "Interplanetary expressway" trajectory that uses phobos slingshots to capture into mars orbit over "billions of years in space"?

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Elon Musk on Twitter:

Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/936782477502246912

I am genuinely interested in the payload adapter and whether it is a likely mode of failure.   

I literally clicked on this thread to ask a similar question. Will require some interesting integration between the adaptor and the car and keeping the thing stable going uphill.......

I wonder if it will be just the chassis and frame structure (or stripped down to as such, if the car is used), because installing the 1575 mm standard connection interface to the back of the Roadster will be.....awkward.

I guess it is possible to use the Roadster to satisfy certification and testing requirements of payload mass distribution to represent a common satellite?

[drzerg]

they should install dummies and take data from them to formally rate roadster safe features for space use

[guckyfan]

The roadster should fit in horizontally, unlike the school bus. Reenforcing the base plate may be easier than launching it vertical. I am still very much puzzled on how to do Mars orbit injection.

[david1971]

Trajectory from https://trajbrowser.arc.nasa.gov/example_queries.php

January 2018 is not an ideal launch date for a Mars transfer. 2 year transfer, 4.5 km/s injection.

Perhaps "Mars orbit" simply means that the green circle will intersect the red circle.  It would be disappointing, but going to Mars orbit might not actually mean going to Mars. 

[matthewkantar]

Playing "Space Oddity" in a vacuum? Huh?

Matthew

[Coastal Ron]

According to The Verge, Musk confirmed his tweet with them:

Musk first tweeted out the idea on Friday evening, but has since separately confirmed his plans with The Verge.

[Phil Stooke]

Phobos slingshots aren't going to do the job...  if this is real the Tesla has been customized quite considerably.

[K-P]

Playing "Space Oddity" in a vacuum? Huh?

Matthew

Just put the music player with a mic inside an airtight box.

[MATTBLAK]

If the next Mars launch window starts in April, but this FH and payload is going up in January of February, then the closest the thing might get to Mars is a few hundred thousand kms. If the 'car' is solar powered; we could get live camera views from a 'dashcam' showing Mars outside the front window - albeit at maximum zoom. Maybe the passenger seat will have mannequins or at least one cardboard cutout of a celebrity like David Bowie! Also; Elon could get bragging rights on having the 'fastest car ever'...

I believe they might want the car to not go into Martian orbit, but sail along at the same distance and inclination of Martian orbit; leading or trailing Mars by some distance. Heh - what if the 'trunk' had some Draco thrusters in it?! Some maneuvering could be achieved!! 

[x15_fan]

The Mars orbit thing makes me sceptical. He also announced on Twitter that the Tesla Semi can transform into a robot and fight aliens. It can also make an awesome Latte.

So maybe to TMI but it would also need to be reenforced to survive launch. We will see.

Why would it need re-enforcement? Comm sats much more fragile than street legal car than can take a crash.


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[Steven Pietrobon]

Here's what it would look like. Tesla Roadster length is 3.946 m. Curb weight is 1,305 kg.

[kdhilliard]

The roadster should fit in horizontally, unlike the school bus. Reenforcing the base plate may be easier than launching it vertical.

I wouldn't have expected that, but yes, Wikipedia describes the 2008 Roadster as being 3,946 mm long and 1,873 mm wide, and the diagonal of such a rectangle is 4,368 mm, so it should fit a standard F9 fairing which offers 4.6 m ID.

Trajectory from https://trajbrowser.arc.nasa.gov/example_queries.php

January 2018 is not an ideal launch date for a Mars transfer. 2 year transfer, 4.5 km/s injection.

Perhaps "Mars orbit" simply means that the green circle will intersect the red circle.  It would be disappointing, but going to Mars orbit might not actually mean going to Mars.

That would be consistent with Musk's, "Will be in deep space for a billion years or so ...".

[FutureSpaceTourist]

It’s an original Tesla roadster, not a new one:

Gen1 roadster?

https://twitter.com/mswagle/status/936829446052462592

Yeah

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/936829494874091520

[octavo]

Do the Tesla going past Mars!!

This! Haha!

[Elmar Moelzer]

Ha! I called it! I think it is an awesome idea!

[Steven Pietrobon]

OK, here is the 2008 Roadster in the PLF.

[Kaputnik]

First thought: this is crazy. This is not an 'easy' option. How do you integrate the thing? What mods are you going to have to make for vac environment? How is this in any way better than firing up a big inert lump of steel?

Second thought: Actually those are interesting problems to solve. Fun problems. This is how you motivate your workforce and keep your company in the public eye. As soon as I thought about the vac thing, I immediately wanted to sit down and work out how to solve the problem. Dammit, I want to go work for SpaceX...

And that (plus a few billion dollars) is the difference between Elon and normal people.