New Horizons and Thoughts on the Tesla Test Launch

Between outer solar system exploration and the flight of the Tesla, space news has been interesting this week. There was another green light signal from the New Horizons mission on Monday as the spacecraft gets ever closer to its next target 2014 MU69. As of Valentine’s Day, it was 400 million kilometers away from this little world. It will fly by the target on December 31, 2018, a special kind of planetary science New Year’s celebration.

A few days earlier, the NH team released images of two Kuiper Belt objects that it spotted on its way to 2014 MU069.  They were taken from a point farther out than any other spacecraft or telescope has ever imaged the universe from, and represent a big milestone for discovery in the Kuiper Belt.  They also extend our view of this distant region, adding to the excitement of exploration “out there”.

The Flight of Tesla and Starman: Chattering Classes Chatter

So, anybody who reads social media or pays attention to TV or newspapers can’t have missed the launch of the Falcon Heavy last week with a dummy payload made up of a … well, a dummy in a spacesuit riding Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster out to near the orbit of Mars. I found it to be tremendously cool and loved the salute to David Bowie, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, and other references to modern-day culture. It captured people’s imaginations and excitement.

The whole venture also seems to have stirred up a wasp’s nest of conflicting commentary. Most people recognized the reasoning behind sending the Tesla to space: it was a test launch of an untried rocket with a test payload. It’s always a good idea to use a “throwaway” payload when testing an untried rocket. Most of the time, these are concrete or metal blocks to simulate weight and mass. That’s pretty much what the Tesla was, but with a lot more flair than simply a giant blob of “stuff”.

What It Really Means?

In the days since the launch, the “punditocracy” seems to have taken the whole thing to heart. I’ve been reading some amazing (and sometimes very head-scratching) analyses of the launch. They probe the meanings behind sending the car, the dummy, the references to Bowie, and so on. After reading some of these articles, I wanted to yell, “Sometime’s a launch is just a launch!”

Some commentary misses the mark because the writers simply didn’t realize it was a test launch. Other analyses relate it to pursuit of social justice, or condemn it as a boost to Elon’s ego, and there were many other clearly subjective interpretations. The articles I enjoyed the most were the ones that recognized the meaning of this test launch and what it says about humanity’s desire to travel to space.

I get that not everyone follows space as closely as some of us do. So, it’s understandable that some writers might not have caught the hint that this was a TEST launch and there are certain things you don’t do when launching a big booster for the first time. To put it clearly, nobody in their right mind would send up a multimillion-dollar satellite or experiment on a test rocket and risk losing it. I did hear that there were informal offers made to the DOD and NASA, inviting payloads, but understandably, they declined to risk a payload on the test launch of the Falcon Heavy.

Not Every Idea Flies Well

One writer suggested that Elon Musk could have sent up student experiments instead of “wasting” the launch on a car. Well, I suppose he could have. Anything’s possible. But, even that suggestion doesn’t make sense for the same reason it didn’t for the Air Force or NASA. Who wants to risk the payload? Somehow, I got the feeling that the writer didn’t think it would matter to the kids if their nanosat got blasted to smithereens during a failed launch. After all, it’s just an educational payload, right?

Think about that. It’s a lousy message to send: that some payloads aren’t as important, so let’s risk ’em. Elon wasn’t willing to risk somebody else’s hard work if THEY didn’t want to. And so, the selection of the Tesla Roadster with cool cultural references was a good one. It captured people’s hearts and minds. Sure, there’s a lot of nattering about how it does or doesn’t represent the best of human thinking, or that it’s an ego boost. Some see it as an art piece or a philosophical statement.  Still other commentary casts it as a stark representation of capitalism. I saw one article that turned it into an indictment of the patriarchy. Another blasted it as corporate thinking. Yet another cast it as a thoughtful commentary on the human condition.

All that’s fine. Everybody gets to think about it what they want. But, let’s be realistic about the one reason we KNOW it was sent: as a dummy payload. That was its function. As a test. All the other reasons flow from or complement that one.  Now, we move on to other rockets and other launches. It’s all good.

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