12-05-2017, 09:31 PM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Tesla to Mars! (link)
Hello All,
Thanks to Elon Musk (see: http://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/0...vy-lift-rocket/ ), an entertaining, and also scale, variation of the FAI--and the NAR--(passive) Payload Competition (see: http://www.nar.org/contest-flying/f...vents-for-wsmc/ ) is now possible:
Partly because Mr. Musk doubts that the first Falcon Heavy test flight will be successful (he has commented that a RUD--"Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly" is likely, but guarantees that the flight will be exciting, whether or not it's successful), and partly because of the opportunity it will provide for flying a whimsical passive payload, the first Falcon Heavy vehicle will carry a Tesla electric car as its payload. If the mission succeeds, the car will be injected into a trans-Mars trajectory; because the launch will occur outside a window for an Earth-to-Mars Hohmann transfer solar orbit, the car may orbit the Sun for billions of years, perhaps puzzling alien explorers who might discover it ages hence... Also:
A Falcon Heavy scale model rocket, which could be kit-bashed from three SpaceX "Falcon 9 and Fairing" scale model rocket kits (see: http://shop.spacex.com/accessories/...rocket-kit.html ), could carry an appropriately-scaled--which could be 3D printed--model of the Tesla car as its passive payload. :-) |