It would be nice to have money

[stui magpie]

Elon Musk sends a sports car to mars.

Car is currently orbiting earth, with a dummy wearing a spacesuit in the drivers seat while the stereo plays David Bowie's space oddity on repeat.

Respect.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/06/technol ... index.html

On board the rocket that's now headed deeper into space is Musk's personal Tesla (TSLA) roadster. At the wheel is a dummy dressed in a spacesuit. Musk said in December the car would play David Bowie's "Space Oddity" on repeat. Cameras on board the car show it cruising by Earth, which appears as a big blue orb in the background. Musk plans to send the car into orbit around the sun.

He announced last year he planned to put his car on the inaugural Falcon Heavy flight. When asked on Twitter why he wanted to throw away a $100,000 vehicle, he replied, "I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future."

Link to the camera feed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M

Love the little display on the cars dash that says "Don't panic" wonder if that's a tick to Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy"

[think positive]

what a waste. of the car and the money

[stui magpie]

Nah, read the article, the rocket tech is great. Better and cheaper that what NASA currently have.

Consider it a marketing exercise that just ticked every box for the win

[K]

Yes, a marketing exercise for Tesla, methinks. It helps when you have multiple companies that can help market one another.

[David]

I'm not usually one to applaud marketing campaigns, but if that's all it is then that's gotta be some marketing campaign.

In a way, I find it oddly comforting: that even if we blow ourselves up in a nuclear war in the next few years, at least we'll have sent a @#$%ing car into space playing David Bowie. I like to think our future alien overlords would be proud of us.

[K]

The future alien overlords would despise us.

Personally, I'm hoping he's actually lying (i.e. that the SpaceX rocket has a sensible payload only): the cross-over marketing between his hi-tech playthings is just as effective if he is, and it saves otherwise wasted earthly resources.

[HAL]

What is that?

[Pies4shaw]

[David]

Oh P4S, does no-one escape your wrath? First Nick Cave, now Bowie...

[Pies4shaw]

Oh P4S, does no-one escape your wrath? First Nick Cave, now Bowie...

I don't actually mind Bowie - I have that album, amongst others. But you're quite right, the first "musician" into space without a suit should certainly be Nick Cave.

[K]

For comparison, the music sent into space on the Voyager record:

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-rec ... ord/music/

The contents, more generally:

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-rec ... he-record/

[HAL]

When do you think artificial intelligence will replace lawyers?

[David]

Oh P4S, does no-one escape your wrath? First Nick Cave, now Bowie...

I don't actually mind Bowie - I have that album, amongst others. But you're quite right, the first "musician" into space without a suit should certainly be Nick Cave.

I feel like he might appreciate that fate, somehow!

[Pies4shaw]

Or at least it happening 60 years later than it might have.

[Pies4shaw]