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Comment by mabbo | Hacker News Reader

They're going to launch Elon Musk's Telsa Roadster into orbit of the sun, possibly to Mars orbit.

I'm not even joking. That's the goal.

I often think of this kind of whimsical angle when I read other news stories about various archaeological and historical discoveries. There’s always so much discussion on how a particular statue is “the cultural center of the community” or that a jeweled box was of “great religious significance”.

How do we know that the Elon Musk of 3000BC didn’t just build a big obelisk for the lulz?

Probably a bigger question of the problems of inferring great significance from extremely few samples...

I’ve thought the same. There are these rock carvings from forever ago around here, and whenever somebody visits who’s never seen something like that before I just say they are probably tweets from forever ago.

“This one over here is what someone had for lunch. I think ‘twas chicken.”

That sort of thing.

I agree. On a related note, I still believe this to be most plausible explanation of the Voynich Manuscript:

https://xkcd.com/593/

My sources say that his Roadster is already orbiting the sun.

Mars would be a new thing. If this fails it will still be orbiting the sun, but as a distributed cluster this time.

Yep. He said "Mars transfer orbit."

I find it disappointing, however, that a worthy scientific payload isn't being launched. There was a late cancellation of a moon orbiter mission a few years back because of European Space Agency budget concerns (http://www.esa.int/Education/ESA_concludes_student_ESMO_Moon...). Could they not have adapted something for a Mars mission?

Seems a waste to send an automobile advertisement into orbit around Mars for eternity.

>Seems a waste to send an automobile advertisement into orbit around Mars for eternity.

Especially since Red Bull will probably pay a lot of money to have a crash test dummy in a space suit strapped to a dirtbike with a Red Bull zip-tied into his hand, a GoPro on his helmet and some solar panels dangling somewhere broadcasting a live stream for the next handful of decades.

Do you know how much attention yet another orbiter would get? China literally landed on the moon -- the first time anything had soft landed on the moon in 37 years -- and they made some revolutionary discoveries. And nobody cared. Sending a car into orbit of Mars while literally playing Space Oddity, on loop - with a live stream available. That is something that would get massive coverage.

The coverage is not just an advertisement for SpaceX and Tesla, but for space in general. News has turned into sensationalistic drivel, driven by clicks than any sort of value. Little of what's seen on the news today will matter in 10 months, and you'd scarcely find a morsel that will matter in 10 years. This makes the absence of space coverage quite peculiar. 100 years, 100 centuries - the steps we are taking today, after a decades long haitus, into space will define the future we will all live in. If it takes being absurd to get peoples' attention in a world of clickbait, sensationalism, and drama - then, by all means, be absurd.

A big part of the reason it's difficult to get funding for space is because nobody cares. Oh look NASA's orbiter suggests our "recurring slope linaea", or RSL - an acronym more reminiscent of something a pharma ad suggested you may want to ask your doctor about than an unexplained phenomena that ought spark the imagination - may be water! How amazing is that! No, we have no real pictures and no.. we're not going to send the rover that direction.. and have no real plans to do so because of a 50 year old treaty. But think about it... in part because that's all anybody can do! Oh shit, another study just made a strong argument that the water is indeed just dust after all. Oh well. Maybe we just need another orbiter.

You're not sending an automobile into space, you're trying to capture and inspire the hearts and minds of the people. And not just the cliche nonsense of thinking of the children, but of all people. Because this experiment, if it succeeds, will probably have been the most interesting and exciting thing done in space in the past 40 years. Or we could beg for enough morsels to send another orbiter.

Considering the risk with this initial launch, short of a very low budget package, I think most researchers would prefer to wait for a safer launch.

Prudence from greedo on the topic of first shots?

They probably don't want to send expensive science payload on the first test flight of a new launch system, in case of catastrophic failure or such.

> I find it disappointing, however, that a worthy scientific payload isn't being launched.

It would also be disappointing if a worthy scientific payload were to be blown up on launch, an event which Musk seems to think is quite likely.

He's doing expectation management. If he thought it would fail they wouldn't fly.

I don't think this is true.

I think if Musk had to wager he'd bet that this launch is not completely successful. It still makes sense to fly it though. You hope to learn enough to make the second or third attempt a success.

This isn’t necessarily true. They know that there are unknown unknowns at play here, as nothing quite like FH has ever flown. There is a non-negligible chance of something unforeseen rearing its ugly head, and if you’re just launching a lulz payload, that’s fine.

The Roadster is the PR payload. The real payload is the set of all the sensors & transmitters in the rocket. They'll be getting a lot of engineering data whether it is a successful launch or not.

Yeah, of course, the main thing is to test the rocket and that's valuable by itself.

But still, couldn't there be SOMETHING more useful to mankind than a giant paperweight to send into orbit around Mars?

Makes me wonder how well a Tesla Roadster would hold up when exposed to hard vacuum. They probably have a nice sized high vacuum chamber to put this to the test before they launch it.

Funny how this will probably be the best preserved Tesla Roadster in a couple of decades.

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