New insight has emerged on the contents of Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy, which blasted off from Cape Canaveral earlier this month.
The Tesla Roadster is carrying a small disc developed by researchers at the University of Southampton in England.
The disc, which looks like a shrunken DVD, is storing information on human knowledge and was designed by a group aiming to preserve history called the Arch Mission Foundation.
This includes Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, a series of science fiction books.
A disc made by the Arch Mission Foundation is on board Elon Musk’s orbiting Tesla Roadster. The disc can supposedly last up to 14 billion years, and it features a copy of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy
A statement from the organization said: ‘We believe that the purpose of life is to evolve and spread intelligence across the universe.
‘Ancient civilizations accomplished this by preserving their data in stone, a very long lasting medium – for example, The Pyramids of Giza.’
The Arch Mission Foundation said that the disc is among the ‘longest-lasting storage objects ever created by humans’ and that it will be ‘stable’ for 14 billion years.
The technology, made of quartz silica glass, was created by Dr Peter Kazansky and was written by a laser.
‘Data is encoded digitally using plasma disruptions from the laser pulses,’ the foundation’s statement explained.
The organization’s goal is to store human knowledge in different corners of the solar system.
This diagram from the Arch Mission Foundation reveals how the disc works. It was developed by researchers at the University of Southampton in England
Its statement thanked Elon Musk for allowing the foundation to include one of its discs in his Tesla.
‘Our goal at the Arch Mission Foundation is to permanently archive human knowledge for thousands to billions of years.
‘We exist to preserve and disseminate humanity’s knowledge across time and space for the benefit of future generations.’
It claims that its libraries, such as the one sent into space via Musk’s Tesla, are ‘durable under the harsh environments of space and the surfaces of other planets’.
The Arch Mission Foundation hopes to eventually expand and send libraries to the moon and Mars, and its statement requests donations to make this possible.
The Foundation says that it hopes to send data sets into space to help humans develop a spacefaring civilization.
Elon Musk blasted his Tesla Roadster into space aboard the world’s most powerful operational rocket earlier this month. But, it appears the cherry red sports car and its ‘driver,’ Starman (shown) have already settled into their new home. Now that the unconventional payload has reached orbit, NASA has officially designated it a celestial object
Musk’s cherry red sports car and its ‘driver,’ Starman have already settled into their new home.
Now that the unconventional payload has reached orbit, NASA has officially designated it a celestial object.
This means the Roadster and the ‘spacesuit-wearing mannequin’ have joined the ranks of all other objects being monitored in the solar system, from satellites to planets and asteroids.
The latest addition to NASA’s record was spotted by meteorologist and writer for Grist, Eric Holthaus.
Musk’s Roadster can now be found through the online Horizons tool from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
In a description of the new celestial object, NASA wrote: ‘Dummy payload from first launch of SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle consisting of a standard Tesla Roadster automobile and a space-suit wearing mannequin nicknamed Starman.’
And, it reveals some more details on what else is inside the vehicle.
‘Also includes a Hot Wheels toy model Roadster on the car’s dash with a mini-Starman inside,’ the description continues.
‘A plaque on the attachment fitting between the Falcon Heavy upper stage and the Tesla is etched with the names of more than 6,000 SpaceX employees.’
The Roadster and the ‘spacesuit-wearing mannequin’ have joined the ranks of all other objects being monitored in the solar system, from satellites to planets and asteroids. NASA’s description of the ‘dummy payload’ is shown
While NASA says its trajectory has been determined based on GPS data, the space agency also indicates that things could change at any time.
‘Prediction errors could increase significantly over time due to unmodeled solar pressure, thermal radiation, or outgassing accelerations that are not characterized.’
Starman’s 250-million-mile journey through space is set to be an unpredictable one, after already straying off the planned course to voyage past Mars.
Many have begun to question what will happen to the Roadster and Starman as they drift further along.
Experts say the outlook could be pretty grim; the Roadster will have to face tough conditions in outer space, namely thousands of micometeorites and dangerous cosmic radiation.