watched from work, it made me happy…that’s a work first for sure…
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I know it’s a stupid car in the sky shot up there by a zillionaire, but it feels like a turning point today, something to be hopeful for.
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Well, okay, technically correct…
Does it have a Honk if you like Space-X bumper sticker?
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Off topic, but has anyone asked trump if he believes the earth is flat or round?
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another job for where’s my car science/math
Is the car still going to Mars?
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“Dear, remind me, where did you park my car? I just got a letter with a horrendous fine!”
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Starman is a cool frood who really knows where his towel is.
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The LRV was the best car until the Tesla model S. It had four wheel steering, four wheel drive, gyroscopic navigation, all fully electronic. Also it could beam sound and video direct to Earth.
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“It’s kind of silly and fun, but silly and fun things are important,” Mr. Musk said.
(from NYT article - can’t link from my malfunctioning device. Wish Mr. Musk made phones…)
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The 70’s 80’s had Carl Sagan, he made the public interested in space, science, and our place in the cosmos.
The 2010’s have Elon Musk, and I don’t think that guy care about the science part. He like rockets (nothing wrong with that in itself, I do too) and publicity stunts. He speak of Mars colonisation, and not Mars exploration for example.
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The car in orbit doesn’t strike me as very exciting, as it’s just a hyper-expensive exaggeration of those GoPro videos where someone sends up a Skeletor figure or whatever on a weather balloon.
My first reaction was still “holy shit!” though, because I thought they’d put someone in an entirely new, low-profile EVA suit, which would have been a 10x more impressive achievement. But then I realised that part is fake.
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“I’m an East Coast Orthodox Elonian!”
“I’m a Seventh Day West Coast Muskavite!”
“Die Heretic!”
I’m wondering how the paint job on that car will hold up in space.
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Then the cosmic rays hit it and it becomes an Autobot Transformer!
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So public funded space exploration was about science, and private funded is about conspicuous consumption, pollution, and advertising. Nice reusable rocket, let’s send up more billboards.
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Per Elon’s Twitter, their burn last night successfully put the car in a solar orbit that has an aphelion between the orbits of Mars and Ceres. (The plan was never to crash the car into Mars, but to put it in a Mars-crossing orbit.)
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In college, for his final project, a kid converted a VW Scirocco into a spacecraft. He did videos of the whole process, procuring the boosters, gluing heat shielding (bathroom tiles) all over the thing, hooking up “life support systems.” He did exhibitions where he stayed in the craft for days at a time, with a live video feed (of him playing videogames and eating cereal) and then had a huge launch party with a live band and a huge countdown. He actually had a lot of people believing something was going to happen. Nothing did, but it was a hell of a thing, and made a great documentary. I mean, he was an art major afterall…
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It’s going to be gliding through space, with the left turn signal stuck on. Aliens hate that.
ETA:
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Back in the day, one had to take an El Dorado to the Moon.
We got a million dollars worth of ethel gas
And a reservation for the room
Tonight we’re gonna fly the Eldorado to the moon
We’re gonna fly the Eldorado to the moon 
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