Are you kidding? The car wasn't on the head of the rocket without protection. What do you think was in the nose cone???

SMH

Berz out.

this was a test of the Heavy launch platform. they need to simulate the weight of a normal payload it would be expected to carry to get data from the flight. normally they would use cement etc. Elon was like "fuck it, send my car to mars".. so they used the tesla as the payload simulator. in a normal flight there would be a cargo pod of some sort inside the nose cone i imagine. they don't want it and the final stage engine getting hit by debris and the nose cone also improves aerodynamics reducing the power/fuel needed to reach orbit.

once in space where wind resistance is not an issue, they jettison the cone as it's not needed and the attitude control nozzles are probably in there as well.

Weeks (maybe months?) ago, they said they wanted to send it into Mars orbit, but that changed. Before launch, during the countdown, they showed the planned trajectory of the roadster, and it was indeed to the asteroid belt, not mars orbit.

This was honestly amazing to watch, I said the same thing initially when watching those two rockets land "is this CGI, or actually real"? It's amazing what we've been able to achieve, the wasting of those booster rockets was a major barrier in the past, now that they can re-used to easily changes everything.

I'm curious though, when listing to Elon at the post conference, his comments pertaining to visiting the moon made me seriously question if the first lunar landing was legitimate.

I'm surely no expect so certainly school me, but the way he described a mission to the moon, he iterated how much more research will be required to achieve such a feat. Doesn't SpaceX work with NASA directly? If we have already achieved a lunar landing, what further research logistically is required, one would think we have figured out any surprises or unknowns? Along with the technological advancements achieved since '69, he almost made it sound as though the endeavor has never been achieved, which really makes me question everything.

This is not a tinfoil hat post, I'm legitimately curious here. It would be interesting if SpaceX ends up not being able to complete a lunar landing in the future here, if not, it would seriously put into question the legitimacy of the actual initial landing itself.

^ look how difficult it was and how many years it took for spaceX to reliably launch rockets, whereas NASA had been doing it for decades essentially flawlessly, including sending probes to Mars and precise orbits wherever they want. They aren't saying it but I think spaceX overshot Mars with this launch and are now saying they're going for the asteroid belt.

I think we take for granted how dialed in NASA has been and how incredibly difficult the feat of space travel actually is. There's a reason this launch was such a huge deal, but they've got a long way to go to catch up to NASA. They will get there for sure, but imagine what Nasa could do with a cold war sized budget again

I just watched a video about this.
I have a hard time believing that with the Tech available at the time, we could have both gone to the moon AND come back with the craft and the people in tact.

I mean we can't figure this shit out NOW.

Berz out.

btw why is the live stream still showing it in earth's orbit? shouldn't it be way out now? or is the live stream a repeat

Space X could launch rockets into space no problem, it's the not wasting them that they cared about.

Also yes exceeded Mars orbit means they missed, and the path it will take them on will be to end up in the belt.

Berz out.