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It approached 0.05 astronomical units, equivalent to five million miles, from the planet. In 2018, the Tesla Roadster was launched into space by SpaceX’s heavy falcon rocket on its maiden flight.
Sitting in the car is Starman, a mannequin dressed in astronaut clothing.
On Twitter, SpaceX said: “Starman, last seen leaving Earth, made his first close approach with Mars today, 0.05 astronomical units, or less than 5 million miles, from the Red Planet.”
‘Where’s Roadster ?,’ a website that tracks Starman’s Tesla, records that the vehicle is currently about 38 million miles from Earth.
The car could continue to travel for a billion years, 250 million miles away from our planet.
When the Roadster was launched, Starman had very symbolic music in both ears.
In “Where’s Roadster?” says: “If the battery was still working, Starman has listened to Space Oddity 264,803 times since it was released in one ear, and Is there Life On Mars? 356,811 times in his other ear. “
Justifying his decision to shoot the car into space, Musk said that “funny and silly things are important.”
He also argued that the stunt would raise public awareness of the work SpaceX is doing.
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In 2018, before his first test flight, Musk said: “If we are successful, it will be game over for other heavy lift rocket operators.
“It’s like when an airline company has reusable airplanes and every other airline company has single-use airplanes, and you parachute to your destination and the airplane lands somewhere.
“It sounds crazy, this is how the rocket business works.”
Musk has repeatedly stated his ambition to bring humans to Mars.
According to Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, we could see “humans on Mars before the end of this decade.”
Speaking to Express.co.uk he said: “In contrast to the successful robotics program on Mars, the human programs of official space agencies have stalled.
“Precisely because of the failure of official government-manned spaceflight programs, a new force has entered, and it is the entrepreneurial space companies most strongly exemplified by SpaceX, which has now shown that it is possible for a relatively small business team and well managed to do things previously thought only superpower governments could do.
“As a result, not only are the extremely impressive capabilities of SpaceX being developed, they have launched an entrepreneurial space race. This is the power of free enterprise and I am sure we will see much more of this.
“I am sure that we will see a Chinese equivalent of SpaceX and perhaps in many other countries.
“Elon Musk is serious about his trip to Mars. I met with Musk about a month ago and saw what he was doing. “
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