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SpaceX Tesla Roadster Heads for the Restaurant at the End of the Universe

The only car ever made to fly into space is probably frozen solid by now. The Don’t Panic sign on the car’s display has probably long died out, but that’s ok, as the Starman that drives the car is now chill as chill can be.
SpaceX Tesla Roadster's current orbit 1 photo
Photo: Spacex via Twitter
After its launch on February 6 and several month of travel, the cherry red Tesla Roadster is now on a 557 days orbit around the Sun that has put it well past Mars.

Over the weekend, SpaceX gave the world a little update on the car’s location, showing it on its own orbit around the Sun. The words that accompanied the photo were “Starman’s current location. Next stop, the restaurant at the end of the universe.”

For a launch and mission that were filled with references to literature, music and more, the logical continuation of the story implies even more such subtle nods to past works.

The restaurant mentioned by SpaceX is a reference to the second book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Just as the phrase Don’t Panic we mentioned earlier is a tribute to the whole series.

In the book, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, called Milliways, is located five hundred and seventy-six thousand million years in the future. If we are to guess, it’s likely the Earth-made car will spin through our solar system for about that many eons, if not more.

The Roadster is carrying with it to the future much more than a dummy placed behind the wheel and one man's insane dream to send a car to space.

On board are a Hot Wheels toy model Roadster with a mini-Starman inside, a data storage device with a copy of Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels (as part of the Arch project), and the names of more than 6,000 SpaceX employees, etched on a plaque.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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