With all the hype from Space X's launch of the Tesla, one has to wonder why such a launch was made. First, there was speculation that this car launch was a rumor, but finally, the announcement was made. What was the motive? What is there to gain? Afterall, the cost to launch the first test of Space X's Falcon Heavy is estimated at 90 million dollars (Tuttle, 2018). There is a lot at stake with this test after regaining momentum after two Falcon 9 failures. So, Elon Musk had two choices. Launch the rocket with the usual concrete blocks, (Robson, 2018), or choose something more unusual. Anyone who knows or follows Elon Musk knows the second is obvious. So simply put, let's get some publicity while testing the rocket. With this publicity event, however, comes a message for anyone who might find this car. "Made on Earth by Humans".
There was a risk with this launch however since it was launched from pad 39A. If something happened to have caused damage to the pad, NASA would be delayed in the commercial crew program (Davis, 2018). Fortunately, the test launch was successful with two of the three boosters landing as expected. But what about the car? According to a post by Elon Musk, the third burn caused its original trajectory to Mars to change to the Keipert Belt.
In the future, Space X plans to eventually merge both the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy into a much larger rocket called the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) (Davis, 2018). Such a rocket would carry 100 people to Mars. That's a post coming on the horizon. But until then, I leave you with this thought. Anyone up for buying a Mars Tesla version?
