Live! Falcon Heavy, world's most powerful rocket, maiden flight

[StoneRoad]

That spectacular dual touch down had me smiling from ear to ear - what a technologically massive "up yours" to the critics.
As for the soundtrack, "don't panic" on the sat nav" and so on; someone is a show-off with the test payload. But the imagery proves a point.
.
For me, the only sour note was the "core" touchdown failing; but, hey, they've had plenty of failures with that barge already, so one more isn't that serious a problem, just another learning opportunity !

 

[nuffsaid]

Going back to my earlier question, why would the shape of the metal make it more/less 'sciencey'? Is it that you think making it something identifiable, and maybe a bit whimsical, undermines the serious sciencieness of it? You think it distracts from the science and makes it more about the car than the science?

Yes, because if you look at the news, they all mention Elon Musk has sent a car into space, rather than just focusing on what an excellent step forward in rocket science this actually is. See my earlier post from the Guardian, the media are questioning it to. Don't allow them to belittle a great achievement.

 

[ska invita]

Round the world this morning there are thousands of kids who now want to become rocket engineers. Because that launch was cool. That's just one of the many reasons why it was such a stroke of genius to send the car up.

The military are delighted I'm sure.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Yes, because if you look at the news, they all mention Elon Musk has sent a car into space

Genuine question: would they be talking about it as much if there was no car? I'm not up to date, but space exploration has notoriously failed to capture the public imagination for decades. This has got it back in the news, front page on The Times, lots of features. I was at a pub quiz last night so missed the whole thing, but as soon as the quiz was over one of my teammates caught the news on his phone and told the rest of the table. I honestly don't think he would have done that if the story had just been "two rockets didn't blow up this time".

It may rankle somewhat that these sorts of 'stunts' are necessary to get the public interested, but if that's what they do...

 

[Lord Camomile]

The military are delighted I'm sure.

Yeah, always a shadow on these kind of advancements, knowing they'll get used for military reasons.

 

[ska invita]

Yeah, always a shadow on these kind of advancements, knowing they'll get used for military reasons.

kids should become watchmakers instead

 

[DownwardDog]

No, because it's been done. There's a universe out there and I'm sure some data collection of some sort wouldn't have gone amiss for some astronomers or cosmologists somewhere. Heck back in the 90s I could help SETI with my choice of screensaver.

EM does have another business to run. How much do think it would cost to get the sort of brand exposure that Tesla got last night?

 

[nuffsaid]

Genuine question: would they be talking about it as much if there was no car?

It may rankle somewhat that these sorts of 'stunts' are necessary to get the public interested, but if that's what they do...

I'd agree with that. Those 2 rockets self-landing should have been enough wow factor to make people realise what an achievement it was. People shouldn't need to be wowed by stunts though, it's a shame if the majority of folk are too interested looking into their phones to care about what's above. Maybe more fool them and just get on with it, they'll take note if people started taking trips to the Moon for holidays - I would have thought.

 

[nuffsaid]

EM does have another business to run. How much do think it would cost to get the sort of brand exposure that Tesla got last night?

I wouldn't like the idea of space being used to increase brand awareness, not of cars at least (well not yet, maybe when we're commuting between Earth and the Moon), rockets ok. Didn't Coca Cola want to project onto the Moon a while back, might have been an urb myth, but I'd put launching a car into space for brand awareness on a par with that cynical attempt by Coke if that had been the only reason. I know this launch it wasn't, thankfully, so don't come back at me about that.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

I bet Lil Kim is watching it on a loop...

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

space exploration has notoriously failed to capture the public imagination for decades

 

[krtek a houby]

I wouldn't like the idea of space being used to increase brand awareness, not of cars at least (well not yet, maybe when we're commuting between Earth and the Moon), rockets ok. Didn't Coca Cola want to project onto the Moon a while back, might have been an urb myth, but I'd put launching a car into space for brand awareness on a par with that cynical attempt by Coke if that had been the only reason. I know this launch it wasn't, thankfully, so don't come back at me about that.

Judge Dredd got there first

 

[urbanspaceman]

Apparently the final burn was more powerful than expected, and the car will now have an aphelion that reaches as far out as the asteroid belt. On in other related asteroid/electric car news, from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash:

"The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the asteroid Belt." (Possibly my favourite line in all of Science Fiction)

Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket heading towards asteroid belt after overshooting Mars' orbit

l energy

 

[Baronage-Phase]

Apparently the final burn was more powerful than expected, and the car will now have an aphelion that reaches as far out as the asteroid belt. On in other related asteroid/electric car news, from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash:

"The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the asteroid Belt." (Possibly my favourite line in all of Science Fiction)

Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket heading towards asteroid belt after overshooting Mars' orbit

l energy

Yes..they announced this at around 8.30 this morning. It's a pity but it is going to enter the asteroid belt and be battered to bits.
Should be intersting to see though if it keeps transmitting.

 

[Crispy]

The asteroid belt is still mostly empty space. Should be fine.

 

[StoneRoad]

Something else to suggest keeping an eye on the sky ...

 

[Baronage-Phase]

The asteroid belt is still mostly empty space. Should be fine.

Can it be guided through? I didn't think it was able to do that. Or is it going to go through at a set trajectory?

 

[Dogsauce]

Maybe it could hide in a giant cave inside an asteroid for a bit. Only the floor feels a bit squelchy, and what's that rumbling sound...

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Can it be guided through? I didn't think it was able to do that. Or is it going to go through at a set trajectory?

The final burn used up all the fuel, so it's course is set

 

[Baronage-Phase]

I do like this..

 

[8ball]

The final burn used up all the fuel, so it's course is set

Unless it pings off a couple of rocks on its way through.

 

[Dogsauce]

The asteroid belt is still mostly empty space. Should be fine.

Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Yes..they announced this at around 8.30 this morning. It's a pity but it is going to enter the asteroid belt and be battered to bits.
Should be intersting to see though if it keeps transmitting.

The asteroid belt isn’t like one from a sci-fi film. Space is big. Asteroids are small. It’ll be fine.

 

[8ball]

The asteroid belt isn’t like one from a sci-fi film. Space is big. Asteroids are small. It’ll be fine.

Some asteroids are big. And moving fast. Relative to you.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

It's going to pass close to Ceres ...

 

[nuffsaid]

Yes..they announced this at around 8.30 this morning. It's a pity but it is going to enter the asteroid belt and be battered to bits.
Should be intersting to see though if it keeps transmitting.

Better put the roof back up.

 

[Idris2002]

Worth posting again for how epic it is!

“I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals; I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.”

― Roland Barthes, Mythologies

 

[urbanspaceman]

The asteroid belt isn’t like one from a sci-fi film. Space is big. Asteroids are small. It’ll be fine.

SF writer Charlie Stross was complaining about such misconceptions about space only yesterday:

Why I barely read SF these days - Charlie's Diary

"Let me have another go at George Lucas (I'm sure if he feels picked on he can sob himself to sleep on a mattress stuffed with $500 bills). Take the asteroid field scene from The Empire Strikes Back: here in the real world, we know that the average distance between asteroids over 1km in diameter in the asteroid belt is on the order of 3 million kilometers, or about eight times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. This is of course utterly useless to a storyteller who wants an exciting game of hide-and-seek: so Lucas ignored it to give us an exciting game"

We've seen so many films that misrepresent just how amazingly empty space is that it's scrambled our perceptions of what it's really like out there. As for the fate of the car itself, I guess that it was extensively modified to render it safe for launch. If it was me, I would have removed all fluids, removed the battery pack and downpowered and earthed all electrical systems, deflated the tyres, probably removed the motors to aid mass distribution, incorporated internal bracing to withstand launch stresses, and sealed boot, bonnet and doors so that they don't pop open. So it looks like a car, but it's now more a sculpture than anything else.

 

[2hats]

The total volume of rock in the asteroid belt is less than 0.05% of the volume of Earth, spread out over a vast volume (>6 cubic AU). The average density of the asteroid belt is something less than 10^-22 gram per cubic cm. It’s empty space. Laboratory vacuums on Earth struggle to get to that level.

 

[editor]

Sorry - I don't like the car, it feels like a dumbing down of space. Like people riding a banana boat behind Christopher Columbus. Lets actually do the hard work working stuff out before we play around with it.

You are aware that this follows a long, long tradition of inventors and entrepreneurs adding showbiz and gimmicks to the launch of the products, and there's a very sound reason for doing so?

Moreover, this kind of fun launch is far more likely to interest and excite the imaginations of future young scientists than launching a lump of concrete into space.