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First car in space today!


Sunshine

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The orbit is a highly eccentric one, that will  take it out almost to Ceres' orbit, tehn back to Earth's orbit, continually.

It will be way away from earth orbiting satellites. It's orbit will be characterised well enough it won't be a threat to interplanetary missions regardless of teh tiny risk of collision.

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4 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

The orbit is a highly eccentric one, that will  take it out almost to Ceres' orbit, tehn back to Earth's orbit, continually.

It will be way away from earth orbiting satellites. It's orbit will be characterised well enough it won't be a threat to interplanetary missions regardless of teh tiny risk of collision.

I think people sometimes forget how big interplanetary space is... Low Earth Orbit is crowded with junk, of course.

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In all the excitement I've suddenly realised I'm confuzzled.

The second stage/payload supposedly successfully boosted into a big, Mars crossing, elliptical orbit. So how come the live camera still shows Starman in LEO? I'm expecting to see Earth become a Pale Blue Dot before disappearing in the distance.

What am I missing?

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41 minutes ago, Paul M said:

In all the excitement I've suddenly realised I'm confuzzled.

The second stage/payload supposedly successfully boosted into a big, Mars crossing, elliptical orbit. So how come the live camera still shows Starman in LEO? I'm expecting to see Earth become a Pale Blue Dot before disappearing in the distance.

What am I missing?

Final burn.

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52 minutes ago, Paul M said:

In all the excitement I've suddenly realised I'm confuzzled.

The second stage/payload supposedly successfully boosted into a big, Mars crossing, elliptical orbit. So how come the live camera still shows Starman in LEO? I'm expecting to see Earth become a Pale Blue Dot before disappearing in the distance.

What am I missing?

I guess he is on the slow boat Paul ;) 

More seriously, he is definitely not in LEO anymore, check these two pictures out, taken at the start and towards the end of the time showing on the feed.

IMG_6556.PNG

IMG_6555.PNG

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35 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Ah, ok. He's just cruising then. I can see the difference between the two frames now!

Yes, it's just a transfer orbit, he is not powering straight at Mars! :) 

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1 hour ago, Stu said:

Yes, it's just a transfer orbit, he is not powering straight at Mars! :) 

Indeed, but he's doing in excess of 17,000 mph and I'd have expected Earth to be regressing pretty fast but he's still in Earth orbit. So there is a further burn yet to come?

The only graphic I've seen implies a simple burn directly to a new highly elliptical Heliocentric orbit. 

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Here is the most I can find on it's current track: https://www.space.com/39619-spacex-falcon-heavy-roadster-to-asteroid-belt.html

I've looked all over for orbital elements to plug into SkySafari, but nowhere seems to have them. At least nowhere that Google can point me towards.

Looking at that trajectory, Starman is indeed only slowly pulling away from earth but it would still be nice to manipulate the orbit in time and space on SkySafari.

 

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45 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Here is the most I can find on it's current track: https://www.space.com/39619-spacex-falcon-heavy-roadster-to-asteroid-belt.html

I've looked all over for orbital elements to plug into SkySafari, but nowhere seems to have them. At least nowhere that Google can point me towards.

Looking at that trajectory, Starman is indeed only slowly pulling away from earth but it would still be nice to manipulate the orbit in time and space on SkySafari.

 

Me too. I found a reference to put into the JPL site to generate orbital elements but it seemed to pick up another object.

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57 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

the footage you're seeing in live feed is not live anymore but just looping, the batteries have worn down 12 hours after launch.

Not much of a recommendation for an electric car :grin:

Dave

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57 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

the footage you're seeing in live feed is not live anymore but just looping, the batteries have worn down 12 hours after launch.

Oh dear, did they forget to pack the mobile 'phone charger? :evil4:.

Half-seriously, pity they didn't have funds to put solar panels and a big dish on it (Looks like there was room on the carrier structure). Would have loved to see pics from the asteroid belt.

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Now then,

I've found it on both Stellarium and SkySafari. Stellarium needed a bit of manual intervention to update the new launches. Sky Safari found it after updating minor body data but still has it in a 2hr 44min period Earth Orbit??

Stellarium shows a TLE set whereas SkySafari gives a verbose list of orbital characteristics. I'm currently making comparisons between the two. I'm no expert in setting up viewpoints in Stellarium so it's difficult to see how it's  plotting the orbit,

The TLE's from Stellarium:

1 43205U 18017A   18038.05572533  .00020608 -51169-6  11058-3 0  9994

2 43205  29.0165 287.1006 3403068 180.4827 179.1544  8.75117793    17

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4 minutes ago, Stu said:

What did you search for Paul, 'Starman'? ;) 

Oh, Sorry!

I found it as "Tesla Roadster" in the add new satellites utility in Stellarium then found the same name in SkySfari.

 

Edit: Too slow...

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