Elon Musk’s Starman in the Tesla Roadster has been drifting in space for around 6 years now, and it seems it will eventually crash into Earth, Venus, or the Sun.
Tesla’s Cosmic Journey
On February 6, 2018, SpaceX sent its Falcon Heavy rocket on its first-ever journey. The rocket, designed for deep space missions, carried an unusual payload: Elon Musk’s cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster.
The car, with a dummy named “Starman” in a spacesuit at the wheel, was fixed onto the rocket’s second stage for the ride. Accompanied by David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” the Starman mission embarked on an unusual journey into the cosmos.
The car and its dummy driver, weighing nearly 3,000 pounds combined, were meant to show that the Falcon Heavy could send bulky loads toward Mars in upcoming missions. Musk expressed his desire to inspire the public about the “possibility of something new happening in space”.
Since its launch, people have been curious about where the Roadster is in space. According to WhereIsRoadster.com, a website that tracks its location using NASA data,
So Where Is The Car Now?
As of now, the Tesla Roadster, with “Starman” at the wheel, continues its journey through space. It currently lies approximately 61,133,770 miles (98,385,297 km) away from Earth, equivalent to about 5.47 light minutes, and it’s hurtling towards us at a speed of 7,950 mph (12,795 km/h).
The Roadster is also making its way towards Mars and the Sun. It is approximately 222,607,734 miles (358,252,531 km) away from Mars, equivalent to about 19.92 light minutes, and it’s zooming towards the red planet at a velocity of 9,675 mph (15,570 km/h).
As of the sun, the Roadster is about 92,033,484 miles (148,113,581 km) away from the Sun, equivalent to about 8.23 light minutes. It’s moving towards our star at a pace of 3,271 mph (5,264 km/h).
The Roadster is orbiting the Sun in an irregular pattern about every 557 days, and it’s completed nearly 3.97 orbits around the Sun since launch, as per the tracking site.
NASA says this orbit will remain stable for millions of years, although solar and cosmic radiation, as well as micrometeoroid impacts, will probably damage the vehicle over time.
This information is all based on computer simulations because the car hasn’t been seen since March 2018, just a month after it was launched. According to SpaceX’s calculations, the Roadster finished its first orbit around the Sun in August 2019 and made its first close pass by Mars on October 7, 2020.
The next time it will come close to Earth is estimated to be around 2047, at a distance of 5 million kilometers.
Musk’s Roadster will probably collide with either Earth, Venus or the Sun eventually, according to estimates by Hanno Rein, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto in Canada.
There’s a 22 percent chance it will hit Earth and likely burn up in our atmosphere within the next 15 million years, and a 12 percent chance it will crash into Venus or the Sun, according to Rein’s calculations.
The Roadster was originally supposed to be placed in a heliocentric orbit near Mars, but not into the actual orbit around the planet because the rocket stage carrying the car lacked the necessary equipment for precise maneuvers.
In 2019, Musk mentioned on Twitter that SpaceX might launch a small spacecraft in the future to catch up with the Roadster, take photos, or even bring it back to Earth for study.
During the Roadster’s launch in 2018, Musk had the dummy Starman listen to continuous loops of David Bowie’s Space Oddity in one ear and Life On Mars? in the other throughout the journey.
If the battery was still working, Starman would have listened to “Space Oddity” 602,023 times in one ear and “Is there Life On Mars?” 811,201 times in his other ear since he launched.
Inspiring the Next Generation
The Starman mission made a lasting impression on space exploration and culture. It displayed SpaceX’s ability to advance aerospace technology while captivating global audiences.
Starman’s journey reminded us of the endless opportunities beyond Earth, inspiring upcoming generations of scientists, engineers, and dreamers to aim for the stars.