Space car cruises further than expected towards asteroid belt

ELON Musk’s space car is on track to overshoot its target and is now heading towards the dangerous asteroid belt.

THE car that Elon Musk’s SpaceX shot into space yesterday is on track to overshoot its target and is now rocketing towards the asteroid belt beyond Mars’ orbit.

Mr Musk pulled off a coup yesterday when he successfully fired the privately funded Falcon Heavy rocket into space from Florida and proved that it was the world’s most powerful.

The rocket released a red electric convertible sports car, the Tesla Roadster, carrying a mannequin in a space suit dubbed “Starman”, after the David Bowie song.

Hang in there, Starman! Picture: SpaceX via AP

The car was only meant to reach as far as Mars, with the plan that it would come close to the planet without colliding with it.

Mr Musk tweeted overnight that the Roadster was on track to exceed the red planet’s orbit and continue towards the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a more distant trajectory than anticipated, almost reaching the orbit of dwarf planet Ceres.

Even if the vehicle and its dummy passenger miraculously manage to make it through the asteroids intact, there’s still bad news.

Indiana University chemist William Carroll told Live Science that the real danger for the car is that its plastic and carbon-fibre body will be torn apart by the harsh radiation of the sun and cosmic rays.

“All of the organics will be subjected to degradation by the various kinds of radiation that you will run into there,” he said.

“Those organics, in that environment, I wouldn’t give them a year.”

Third burn successful. Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt. pic.twitter.com/bKhRN73WHF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2018

Images of the car blasting through space with Earth in the background have been met with wonder.

“I think it looks so ridiculous and impossible. You can tell it’s real because it looks so fake, honestly,” Mr Musk said after the launch.

“It’s still tripping me out.”

SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk after the successful launch. Picture: AP Photo/John Raoux

US astronauts both current and former were impressed by SpaceX’s feat.

Perfect day for a cruise in a ragtop. Congrats @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/kP1AGlHA17

— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) February 6, 2018

Awesome! At this speed, two hands on the steering wheel please #Starman https://t.co/ODCIB7wxTW

— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) February 6, 2018

Liftoff! We have liftoff on the #falconheavy Congratulations @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/wnEvXt425M

— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) February 6, 2018

US President Donald Trump even tweeted out his congratulations.

Congratulations @ElonMusk and @SpaceX on the successful #FalconHeavy launch. This achievement, along with @NASA’s commercial and international partners, continues to show American ingenuity at its best! pic.twitter.com/eZfLSpyJPK

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2018

Mr Musk has stated that his ultimate goal is to put humans on Mars.

He said he hoped other private enterprises would follow his lead and say, “Hey, we can do bigger and better.”

“We want a new space race,” he said.

The mannequin in space.

Good luck out there, Starman!

Originally published as Space car cruises further than expected towards asteroid belt