Photo: Unknown via Teslarati
How do you get ready for a trip to space from which you're certain not to come back? Simple: you hide in the most remote corner of the Earth and hope whoever it is that wants to send you out there doesn't find you.
If, however, you happen to be a car, then it's really up to the will of your owner. And it looks like Elon Musk is absolutely determined to send his Tesla Roadster 1.0 electric sports car into space next year as the main payload of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket.
The CEO announced his intention just after the start of this month via a weird message that, for some reason, included the car's color (midnight cherry) as well as the fact it would be playing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" as it left the Earth.
Considering the batteries work in outer space as well, the stereo could continue to blast the song out of its speakers, but since there's no air to carry the sound waves around, it would all be for nothing. Well, not quite: it makes for a more inciting news story.
If successful, the mission would make Tesla the first carmaker to send one of its models into space where it would stay "for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent." Asked the only question a sane person could think of - "why?" -, Elon Musk replied with the only sane answer apart from the one we've already touched (media publicity): "I 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."
Now, as we get closer to the big day, a picture showing Musk's Roadster mounted on the Falcon Heavy's payload attach fitting in a position that would allow it to fit inside the rocket's body, so if there are still people who thought this was a joke, it's either a very expensive one, or - most likely - it's not a joke at all.
The picture was published by Teslarati without crediting the source, so given the Photoshop expertise of some of the people out there, you can still have your doubts. Just don't be surprised if, in a few million years, some aliens come by saying "hey, you dropped this."
The CEO announced his intention just after the start of this month via a weird message that, for some reason, included the car's color (midnight cherry) as well as the fact it would be playing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" as it left the Earth.
Considering the batteries work in outer space as well, the stereo could continue to blast the song out of its speakers, but since there's no air to carry the sound waves around, it would all be for nothing. Well, not quite: it makes for a more inciting news story.
If successful, the mission would make Tesla the first carmaker to send one of its models into space where it would stay "for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent." Asked the only question a sane person could think of - "why?" -, Elon Musk replied with the only sane answer apart from the one we've already touched (media publicity): "I 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."
Now, as we get closer to the big day, a picture showing Musk's Roadster mounted on the Falcon Heavy's payload attach fitting in a position that would allow it to fit inside the rocket's body, so if there are still people who thought this was a joke, it's either a very expensive one, or - most likely - it's not a joke at all.
The picture was published by Teslarati without crediting the source, so given the Photoshop expertise of some of the people out there, you can still have your doubts. Just don't be surprised if, in a few million years, some aliens come by saying "hey, you dropped this."
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