Buzz
(Motherland) - Elon Musk's Tesla electric car was sent into space by Elon Musk in 2018.
In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy rocket carrying Elon Musk's Tesla electric car into space from Florida, USA. The Tesla Roadster was merely a test payload and did not undertake any scientific missions. 'Starman' - a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit - sat behind the wheel of the $100,000 Tesla Roadster.
Over the past 5 years, many have remained curious about the fate of the Tesla Roadster in the vastness of space. Based on NASA's tracking data of the Tesla, researchers have calculated to provide an answer.
After being launched into space for 5 years, as of early June 2023, Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster has traveled over 3.2 billion kilometers, completing approximately 2.6 orbits around the Sun. Currently, the car is about 322 million kilometers away from Mars and about 377 million kilometers away from Earth.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, believes that the electric car is likely still intact. During its journey through space, some asteroids may have stuck to the car.
During its journey, the car mainly traverses through vast, barren vacuum regions, occasionally coming close to other celestial bodies.
In 2020, this Tesla Roadster first approached Mars at a distance of over 8 million kilometers. According to NASA data, it won't 'meet' Mars again until 2035, and in 2047 and 2050, it will 'encounter' Earth at a distance of just a few million kilometers.
A study suggests that the Tesla has about a 22% chance of colliding with Earth in the next 15 million years, while with Venus or the Sun, it's 12%.
In reality, it's very difficult to precisely determine the exact path the Tesla will take. Since the orbit research of this vehicle has little scientific value, tracking and collecting data about it is not a priority for scientists. The last time scientists observed the Tesla was in March 2018, about a month after it was launched into space.
If the Tesla electric car does indeed collide with Earth, it will be incinerated upon entering the planet's thick atmosphere. Perhaps for millions of years to come, we won't know the final fate of Starman and the Tesla.
