The mannequin “Starman”, the driver of the Tesla Roadster in outer space is way far away than you think. Starman is taking a far long trip of the solar system, in a large elliptical orbit that will bring Starman and his Roadster close to Mars, Sun and other heavenly bodies. Now as the batteries on board the Roadster is dead and is no longer transmitting live footage of its ongoing expedition.
Well thanks to the work of Ben Pearson, a SpaceX fan and electrical engineer working in the aerospace industry, who created ‘Where is Roadster,’ a website that makes use of JPL Horizons data to track the progress of the Roadster and Starman through space, and to predict its path and let you know when it’ll come close to meeting up with various planets and the Sun.
Eventually, NASA released accurate information about where the Roadster is in the sky. Then Pearson figured out a way to store the NASA data on his website to visualize where the car is in real time. The Roadster’s current position, too, as well as its speed and whether it’s moving towards or away from Earth and Mars at any given moment.
Now you can track the Tesla’s orbit around the Sun, alongside the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the dwarf planet Ceres, on a map of our Solar System. You can also follow the car’s path around the Sun from today to almost the end of 2020, and check when the Roadster will be getting particularly close to Mars or the Earth.
It’s not officially affiliated with SpaceX or Tesla, but it is something Elon Musk is apparently using to help remember where he parked his galactic ride.
Mr.NerD TecH TalKs 