This website lets you track Elon Musk's sports car through space.

Ricky Joseph

08-12-2022 Space & Physics
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Ricky Joseph

Dude, where's my fancy Tesla?

Last 06, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made history when he launched the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket since the Saturn V, which took astronauts to the moon. The Heavy's cargo was Musk's personal Tesla Roadster, a $100,000 luxury car made by his other company - Tesla Motors. Six hours after launch, the car and its passenger - a dummy dressed in the suitSpaceX's space car called "Starman" - were on an escape trajectory that Musk hoped would put the car into an elliptical orbit around the Sun and allow for some close passes by Mars.

A few hours later, Musk took to Twitter to announce that SpaceX had slightly overstepped its planned trajectory and the car was now headed for the asteroid belt. According to Space.com. However, the Twitter astronomy community recalculated the numbers from the launch data and the orbit traveled and found that the car will pass closer to Mars than theasteroids.

For those among you who don't trust Musk or a bunch of online astro geeks to tell you where the space convertible is, fear not: you can track it down at the aptly named whereisroadster.com ("where is the roadster .com").

The site whereisroadster developed by self-described space geek Ben Pearson, gives an automatic update on the location of Musk's space car. The data is provided by Jet Propulsion Lab's HORIZONS System which tracks objects in our Solar System. Pearson takes this data and uses it to describe how fast the car is moving with respect to Earth and Mars, and how often the Tesla Roadsterhas exceeded its warranty mileage of about 58,000 kilometers (36,000 miles).

It's kind of like the old PC game Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Except that instead of searching for a fictional criminal around the globe you're tracking a billionaire's real sports car in the endless void of space.

So, what are you waiting for? Go see these numbers representing the orbital trajectory of a car that you will never be able to catch and that will outlast your brief blip of existence in this unfeeling Universe where things change forever. It's fun and educational!

Text translated and adapted from the original by Daniel Oberhaus for the Motherboard website.

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Ricky Joseph is a seeker of knowledge. He firmly believes that through understanding the world around us, we can work to better ourselves and our society as a whole. As such, he has made it his life's mission to learn as much as he can about the world and its inhabitants. Joseph has worked in many different fields, all with the aim of furthering his knowledge. He has been a teacher, a soldier, and a businessman - but his true passion lies in research. He currently works as a research scientist for a major pharmaceutical company, where he is dedicated to finding new treatments for diseases that have long been considered incurable. Through diligence and hard work, Ricky Joseph has become one of the foremost experts on pharmacology and medicinal chemistry in the world. His name is known by scientists everywhere, and his work continues to improve the lives of millions.