SultanOfSwing

You know what though, if I'd managed to successfully launch my car into space, I'd be happy to take an Uber home from work that day

You know, a thought just occurred to me (nothing to do with the car), with all this focus on Mars, and rightly so, poor Venus is being rather left out. OK, so it's an unforgiving, harsh, deadly world that would crush you like a bug if you ever made it to the surface, but I've always had a bit of a soft spot for our 'twin'.

Shard

I think they'll both be all right tonight.

SultanOfSwing

Ayyyy

rpjs

Probably an order of magnitude harder to terraform than Mars though.

jenn32

For a stunt it is wonderful, and certainly good for showing off Tesla's products and suggestive of their technology. Tesla's stock is up over 3% today. On the news of this? Who knows.

SultanOfSwing

Possibly even two. Not that terraforming anywhere is easy, of course.

Practically speaking, Mars is the sensible choice but Venus is still a valid target for research, especially things like the impact of carbon dioxide on an atmosphere and its potential impact in climate change research.

Plus, I really selfishly want to see more surface images after those Soviet Venera missions teased us in the 80s. Venus is just cool, IMO. But there isn't really anything about the solar system that isn't cool to me. Cosmology and deep sky observation might be 'sexy' astronomy but I've always loved the solar system.

markonline1

I’ve had the misfortune to meet Elon Musk, and the guy is a prize twat!!!! Fair play to him with this though. The sight of the rockets landing inch perfect was amazing.

SultanOfSwing

Goes with the territory. You'd probably have said the same thing about Edison, if you had met him.

Nutek

It's the blue jeans.

Pulaski

And the not in considerable matter that Mars is apparently unable to hold an atmosphere.

Personally I think that a trip to Mars is likely suicidal, and that we are a number of decades away from having reliable technology that makes sending men to Mars even vaguely reasonable. By which I mean that until we have a permanently manned base on the moon, with rockets going back and forth to earth at least a couple of times a week, then a trip to Mars is just too much of a gamble with potentially unreliable technology. Because if you experience a problem on, or on your way to Mars, you are going to be seriously screwed with respect to any sort of rescue.

Octang Frye

Edison was a cheat and an opportunist/thief. I have no idea why people hold him up as someone to be revered.
He promised Tesla $50,000 to redesign his DC motor and then reneged after Tesla easily did it.
Tesla invented the AC transmission system - practical way to send electricity over power lines over vast distances.
Edison's DC system would've melted the wires. Also, Edison electrocuted an elephant for show.

Tesla is the true genius. Some even suspect he was not of this planet. I suspect he may have been a Raelian but I don't have any concrete proof.
https://listverse.com/2012/06/07/10-...a-like-a-jerk/

Anyway, answer me this.
Who do you have to coordinate with/get permission from to launch a car into space? Obviously the FAA, but who coordinates all the satellites whizzing around? How do you get a window to get your car through a cosmic game of Frogger? Whose palms do you have to grease to avoid a ticket for space littering?

lansbury

You would have thought he would have sent a charging station with it, so an alien who found it could drive it.

SultanOfSwing

Tesla was other-worldly in his genius. Whether he was an actual alien or not, well, it's fun to speculate but we'll never know. I only brought up Edison as an example that many inventors tend to be arseholes.

Nobody, really. The positions and orbits of satellites are known, so they can be worked around. I'm pretty sure launch sites are in controlled airspace, so there shouldn't be any air traffic to worry about. Once you get out of the atmosphere you're all good.

Octang Frye

I think you're over-thinking this. There are no roads in space.
I posit that an alien species encountering this object would view it as an object to be studied, not to go joyriding in.

Also, stereos don't work in space because there are vacuums which suck up the sound waves.

SultanOfSwing

Vacuums don't suck up sound waves, they just can't propagate in a vacuum because sound needs a medium to transmit it as it needs 'something' to vibrate.

Needlessly pedantic, I know. I've been doing so well lately too.