Here’s the first “space car”: the brand-new Midnight Cherry Tesla Roadster, an electric car from Tesla Motors. It will be the first payload of the Falcon Heavy, world’s most powerful rocket from SpaceX. The launch is scheduled in January at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Elon Musk, owner of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, twitted the news declaring that the car will reach Mars while playing “Space Oddity” from David Bowie. The Falcon Heavy is made of three Falcon 9 in parallel (Falcon 9 is the rocket currently used by the company to ship satellites in space and supplies to the International Space Station). As Falcon 9 has 9 engines, the Heavy is powered by 27 kerosene-oxygen engines. “The thrust is going to be impressive”, pointed up Musk, “anything could happen.”. Due to its composite structure a failure of the Falcon Heavy has already been taken in count. During the last days the rocket has been carried to the launch pad for a first engine ignition test. If it will be successful the official lift–off may happen before the end of January. The launching has been designed so that both the boosters (basically the two side rockets) and the main stage will come back on Earth in three different locations. Next, they will be reconditioned and reused.
The boosters should re-enter approximately near the coasts of Florida while the main stage should land on a floating platform in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Falcon Heavy itself measures 70 meters and weighs about 1,4 million kilograms when fully loaded. According to the project it can ship 64 tons in low-orbit around Earth and 17 tons towards deep space. If the plan will succeed SpaceX could finally start trips to the Moon and Mars.
Alessandro Ferrari, 5 A Scientifico
