On February 6, you may have seen the first launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket. It contained a special cargo in the form of a Tesla Roadster, with a steering wheel named Starman at its wheel.
The successful launch of Falcon Heavy is worthy of many superlatives, but the general public will especially remember the images of Starman at the wheel of a Tesla Roadster. The vehicle is now on a heliocentric trajectory to the Red Planet, and although the video link with Starman only lasted a few hours after it was launched, Whereisroadster, designed by Ben Pearson, an astronomy enthusiast, gives real-time figures about his position.
We learn that, at the time of writing, the vehicle is flying at a speed of 6859 miles per hour (a little more than 11000km / h) and is located at nearly 2120000km from the Earth. The distance already traveled by the Roadster is 246 times the distance covered by the Tesla warranty (limited to 36000 miles). An animated diagram of the solar system makes it possible to compare the trajectories of the Earth, Mars and Starman, and to calculate the different dates of approaches of the different stars. Mars and Starman's orbits are expected to meet around 9 October 2020.
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