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#540
by
Oersted
on 12 Jan, 2018 21:42
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Here's a vid of the payload, BTW:
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#541
by
IanThePineapple
on 12 Jan, 2018 22:01
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#542
by
dnavas
on 05 Feb, 2018 12:47
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A further, but very important, payload detail:
Seems to me the Roadster needs a driver, and while Buzz Lightyear is an amusing thought, Musk is the best driver for his own car. And since he's not really available, I nominate IronMan. In particular, a lego replica seems appropriate to be launched by a Heavy....
Well, it's not Ironman, but using a prototype / mockup spacesuit was inspired. 150 points to Gryffindor.
Whoever made that happen ... that's gotta be a story worth telling.
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#543
by
Johnnyhinbos
on 05 Feb, 2018 14:22
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Here's a vid of the payload, BTW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8PEnK3aoFQ?t=27
I thought that would be a video of someone walking around the roadster on the PAF or something like that, not just a vid of the car driving
I don’t know, I thought it was kind of poignant - it showed Elon showing off the beautiful Roadster doing what it was made to do. Wonder Elon then would have thought if he knew what Elon Now was going to do with that car. I mean - the vehicle has its own storied history, and is about to become historic (one way or another...)
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#544
by
CorvusCorax
on 05 Feb, 2018 15:31
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I wonder if they put a crash test dummy inside the spacesuit and if its actially instrumented.
Thats likely not info SpaceX would share, but it kinda would make sense - if you put a spacesuit through an interplanetary test, u might as well get some data from it. At least some basics - temperature, pressure, maybe radiation, acceleration? ( although the regular 2nd stage telemetry already gices them that )
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#545
by
oldAtlas_Eguy
on 05 Feb, 2018 15:41
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I think the GrassHopper Cowboy changed his outfit.
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#546
by
ThePonjaX
on 06 Feb, 2018 03:42
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I wonder if they put a crash test dummy inside the spacesuit and if its actially instrumented.
Thats likely not info SpaceX would share, but it kinda would make sense - if you put a spacesuit through an interplanetary test, u might as well get some data from it. At least some basics - temperature, pressure, maybe radiation, acceleration? ( although the regular 2nd stage telemetry already gices them that )
I think you're right, this is a great opportunity to a real test for the suit. I understand the S2 is going for some hours through the Van Hallen belt , the radiation information inside the suit could be priceless.
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#547
by
hkultala
on 06 Feb, 2018 14:59
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Speculation:
So, if everything does well today, we then know the return payload of one of the BFS outer space missions:
Elon Musk's Tesla roadster.
He will bring it back, and then drive it again on earth.
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#548
by
speedevil
on 06 Feb, 2018 18:37
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He will bring it back, and then drive it again on earth.
Or not on Earth.
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#549
by
lcs
on 06 Feb, 2018 18:46
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I wonder if they put a crash test dummy inside the spacesuit and if its actially instrumented.
Somehow I refuse to believe they did not put a video camera pointing at the driver's seat with a 'crash dummy' that resembles Elon Musk.
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#550
by
FlokiViking
on 06 Feb, 2018 18:51
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Worthwhile, I think, to realize/remember that the Tesla Roadster being launched today will be, if all goes well, the
fourth electric car to leave low earth orbit.
https://www.space.com/39606-spacex-falcon-heavy-fourth-car-space.htmlI'm proud to say that some of the managers that I worked with early in my career worked on those first three cars earlier in their careers. It was fun and educational to listen to their stories about it. I'm still amazed at what they were able to do.
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#551
by
oiorionsbelt
on 06 Feb, 2018 21:35
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Over 220,000 viewers are currently watching SpaceX's mass simulator.
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#552
by
Lars-J
on 06 Feb, 2018 21:36
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Don’t worry, Space Ghost 1962 will soon post another informal poll amongst his Silicon Valley friends, describing what terrible marketing this is.
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#553
by
sanman
on 06 Feb, 2018 21:42
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So it was mentioned that there was also a storage device called the "ark" which had Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy on it. Was that all it had? No Library of Congress, or anything like that?
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#554
by
PeterAlt
on 06 Feb, 2018 23:42
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Will we see a lunar flyby of the current mission? If so, when? Thanks
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#555
by
Oersted
on 06 Feb, 2018 23:51
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In the post Falcon Heavy launch presser Elon confirmed that Starman is indeed wearing a test article of their actual spacesuit. Not instrumented, "but you can wear it in a vacuum chamber, it works", Elon said (words to that effect).
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#556
by
speedevil
on 06 Feb, 2018 23:54
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Will we see a lunar flyby of the current mission? If so, when? Thanks
I saw the moon, on the camera, if that counts.
However no, the current mission will not be flying by the moon.
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#557
by
PeterAlt
on 07 Feb, 2018 00:23
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Will we see a lunar flyby of the current mission? If so, when? Thanks
I saw the moon, on the camera, if that counts.
However no, the current mission will not be flying by the moon.
Will there still be communication when it flys by Mars? If so, how? It won’t still be attached to the second stage, or will it? It could get closer to the moon on a subsequent Earth flyby, right? And will it still have power then?
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#558
by
Lars-J
on 07 Feb, 2018 00:29
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Will we see a lunar flyby of the current mission? If so, when? Thanks
I saw the moon, on the camera, if that counts.
However no, the current mission will not be flying by the moon.
Will there still be communication when it flys by Mars? If so, how? It won’t still be attached to the second stage, or will it? It could get closer to the moon on a subsequent Earth flyby, right? And will it still have power then?
It will likely stay attached to the upper stage, which provides the power for the current video and telemetry being broadcast. But that power will be gone just a few hours from now.
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#559
by
the_other_Doug
on 07 Feb, 2018 00:49
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Will we see a lunar flyby of the current mission? If so, when? Thanks
I saw the moon, on the camera, if that counts.
However no, the current mission will not be flying by the moon.
Will there still be communication when it flys by Mars? If so, how? It won’t still be attached to the second stage, or will it? It could get closer to the moon on a subsequent Earth flyby, right? And will it still have power then?
No. The Tesla is not a Mars probe. It's a mass simulator that Musk decided to use instead of concrete blocks, to let the rocket have something to lift. (For various reasons, you don't want to launch without any payload at all -- it affects how they rocket bends and vibrates as it flies.)
The power is all coming from batteries in the second stage. They will last a total of about 12 hours. The stage won't do its injection into the trajectory outbound for beyond where Mars orbits the Sun (it won't actually go near Mars, at least any time in the next several thousand years) until about six hours after launch. So, we will get these pictures for six hours in this lopsided Earth orbit, with a high point of about 7,000 km, and another six hours watching the Earth shrink in the rearview mirror.
Then, except for the data reduction SpaceX will do from the flight, it's all over.
That's all there is.
