How is billionaire Elon Musk’s electric car doing after 5 years of space flight?

Half a decade has passed since SpaceX successfully launched Elon Musk’s Tesla roadster into space.

Tesla electric car pictured taken on February 8, 2018.

Tesla electric car pictured on February 8, 2018. (Photo: SpaceX)

As of February 6, the cherry red sports car has been in space for 5 years. At the time of the anniversary, estimated data showed the vehicle had circled the Sun about three and a quarter times, flying 327 million miles from Earth, according to the tracking site Whereisroadster. com. The roadster has traveled more than 4 billion kilometers in space, mainly in a vacuum environment. However, in 2020, the vehicle approached Mars for the first time, just 8 million km from the Red Planet, about 20 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

However, It’s hard to say for sure where the car is or if it’s intact Because the vehicle can be destroyed by meteorites or eroded beyond recognition by radiation. There have been no direct observations of the vehicle since 2018, weeks after the vehicle reached orbit on a Falcon Heavy rocket. Current data is based only on estimates of its flight path. Astronomers have no incentive to actively monitor the roadster because it doesn’t have much scientific value.

The Tesla car served as the “knockoff block” for Falcon Heavy’s first mission in February 2018, a launch for which even Musk predicted a success rate of just 50 to 50. But the fire launch operation s It went smoothly. From then on, the car flew around the Sun, with an elongated orbit, intersecting the orbit of Mars.

Before the 2018 launch, SpaceX placed many different Easter eggs on the vehicle. Behind the steering wheel is a spacesuit-wearing model nicknamed Starman. On the dashboard of the car there is a sign written “Do not panic”based on the famous science fiction story “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Additionally, the vehicle’s data storage device contains works by writer Isaac Asminov and plaques engraved with the names of thousands of SpaceX employees. At the time of the launch, Musk shared his hope that one day humans will settle on another planet in the solar system. If that happens, he hopes his descendants can return the roadster to the museum.

Currently, the vehicle probably won’t fly near a planet until 2035, when it will pass by Mars again. The vehicle will then fly just a few million miles above Earth in 2047 and 2050, according to NASA data. A scientific article published in 2018 estimated the probability of the car hitting the Earth within the next 15 million years at around 22%. The chance of it hitting Venus or the Sun is 12%. If it crashes on Earth, the car will likely break into several pieces as it falls through the thick atmosphere.

Article source: VnExpress