If Anything Is Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing To Excess
“If Anything Is Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing To Excess” – Edwin Land, Inventor – often cited by Stephen Tyler, Aerosmith.
“If Anything Is Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing To Excess” – Edwin Land, Inventor – often cited by Stephen Tyler, Aerosmith.
Lois McMaster Bujold, in her “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance” has Ivan commenting that the Vorkosigan motto should be “If it’s worth achieving it’s worth over-achieving”. 🙂
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think of that without setting it to different music …. https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I am reminded of the line from the movie “Contact”
“first rule in government spending. Why build one when you can build two at twice the price.”
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I haven’t been this excited and nervous about something in space since the Skycrane landing.
Not according to Wikipedia[0], if you trust their sources: “the car is not going to fly by Mars nor enter an orbit around it.”
[0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
Which should remind us that advertising is ‘looks cool’ not ‘reflects reality’. :-p
Remember, the Tesla has not been sterilized, so NASA’s Planetary Protection folk would have a fit if there was any chance it might impact on Mars with it’s Earthly germs. So the best he is allowed to do is set it on an equilvalent orbit, but with no risk of impact.
Thinking of Mr. R-G’s comment below:
Would the use of the roadster be ‘advertising’, Herr Professor, or ‘marketing’?
Advertising is always part of the Promotion Mix. But in this case it is technically Public Relations, another element of the Promotion Mix, since Elon Musk is getting the media to cover it for free. In Advertising you purchase media time for your message that sells your good or service. In Public Relations (AKA Publicity) the media sends your message for free. i.e. SpaceX and Telsa are “cool” brands launching a roadster into space.
Thanks.
Well, the transfer window IS fairly close. Not sure the delta-v hit it would take for a closeish approach with an early February launch. They could also park in an elliptical Earth orbit and perform a second boost (Oberth effect anyone?) with the upper stage in a month….
No, I don’t think so. I checked some numbers for a launch in the first couple weeks of January (back when that looked like the likely launch date) and there wasn’t enough delta v for an actual trip to Mars. Also, Ars Technica published an interview with Mr. Musk today. He said the flight profile involved a six-hour wait between second stage burns (to satisfy a DoD requirement or desire to get spacecraft all the way to geostationary orbit) and that the final burn would then send the Tesla to a solar orbit. So a few months on a parking orbit doesn’t seem to be in the plan.
I really hope the launch goes well, just for the sheer audacious whimsy of the thing. The world could use a good smile along with a feeling of accomplishment.
In 10 million years time, the sun-faded and micrometeorite-pitted remains of this vehicle and its ‘driver’ will be picked up. The first thing that will go through the salvage ship’s commander’s mind will be: “What the hell is this?!?“