Launched nearly three years ago, Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster—with mannequin driver Starman at the wheel—is poised to complete its second orbit around the Sun. Sadly, little likely remains of this legendary SpaceX payload today.
In February 2018, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy—the world's most powerful operational rocket at the time—carried the cherry-red Tesla Roadster and Starman on its maiden flight. Since then, they've covered immense distances across the Solar System.
The Roadster completed its first solar orbit on August 18, 2019, after traveling approximately 762 million kilometers. Last October, it passed within less than five million miles of Mars.
According to real-time tracking site WhereIsRoadster.com, by then the car and Starman had logged enough mileage to circle all the world's roads more than 57 times.
Traveling at nearly 115,000 km/h, the Tesla has pressed on since October. As of January 13, 2021—almost three years post-launch—it had completed 1.9244 orbits of the Sun, with an orbital period of 557 days. The second orbit wrapped up around February 25.
The dashboard famously reads "Don't Panic"—a nod to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and "Life on Mars?" loop endlessly on the audio system. If batteries endure (unlikely), Starman has heard "Space Oddity" over 292,000 times and "Life on Mars?" more than 394,000 times.
Without images, exact degradation is hard to gauge, but solar radiation and cosmic rays have probably eroded the plastics and carbon fiber frame—built from carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds. What's left is minimal.
Even so, remnants will cruise interplanetary space for years. SpaceX projected a billion-year journey for the dummy, with a 2018 study suggesting possible impacts on Earth or Venus in tens of millions of years.
Starman endures as the iconic symbol of SpaceX's creative space launches.
Falcon Heavy debuted spectacularly but sparingly: just two commercial flights (April 11 and June 25, 2019). A classified U.S. government mission was next, eyed for early 2021.
