Falcon Heavy Ready To Launch
Aside from building electric cars, digging tunnels and creating flamethrowers, Elon Musk has also been busy designing and building space rockets.
His biggest to date, the Falcon Heavy, is currently on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space centre and is set to shortly launch.
Unusual payload
As part of the launch, the rocket isn’t going into space just for the fun of it. The rocket will also contain one of his Tesla Roadster cars. The plan, when in orbit, is to launch the car into space with a test dummy on board. The plan is to set the car on an elliptical orbit to pass Mars.
In a report via CNET, Elon Musk has said that: “We’ve done all the (computer) modelling we could think of,” and that “In theory it should work.”
Why a car?
Well, the short answer is, why not. Elon Musk said: “Normally when a new rocket is tested, they put something really boring on like a block of concrete or a chunk of steel or something. The car is just the most fun thing we could think of.”
The car is estimated to orbit for around a billion years with a slim chance that it may someday land (or more accurately hit) Mars.
The rocket
The Falcon Heavy will be powered by 3 of the Falcon 9 rockets strapped together with a single second stage rocket. This means that when launched, a total of 27 engines will be firing to achieve the launch. This has only been attempted once before in a brief firing test held last month.
If nothing else, whether you like Elon Musk or not, you got to love his way of thinking. It’s either going to spectacularly well, or spectacularly badly.
What do you think? Planning on watching the launch? Think it will succeed? – Let us know in the comments!
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