Jalopnik can't get over a Tesla in space

Most of that article (and the responses) ignored the "burn up in the atmosphere" aspect of re-entry, regardless of planet. Of course, Mars has the thinnest atmosphere as compared to Earth and Venus, so the vehicle could conceivably make it to the surface somewhat intact, or at least in sizable chunks...THEN the trouble starts...

 

Excuse my ignorance, but....

It's orbiting Mars.
Explain to me how it would hit either Venus or Earth? Assuming the bacteria didn't figure out how to fire the Tesla up, and take a joy ride towards the Big Blue Marble.

If we manage to destroy ourselves on planet earth, and life on earth got reseeded by a Tesla, and our own surviving mutated bacteria, I'd' call that ironic.

But I still don't get the concern over what would happen if the vehicle hit Venus or Earth. It's in Mars orbit...wouldn't hitting Venus or Earth be an impossibility?

 

It's not in orbit around Mars...

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Live: Watch Starman in Space [VIDEO] | Heavy.com

 

What we know about microbes surviving in space comes from ISS experiments. They were within Van Allen belts and thus did not experience charged particle fluxes as high as way out yonder.

Those done in 2008 and 2009 were at bottom of a solar cycle. Those in 2014 and 2015 were at a top (but not a very high top). This would at least mean different UV exposures, but I don't think this was part of experimental design.

We'll know a lot more after Mars round tripping starts. Moon is much closer and I think interesting because each month it goes in and out of Van Allen belts. Also some asteroid will get closely examined (sooner or later) and this could include microbial or biochemical work.

All that is lots of fun. But mostly missing the point I fear. Think of an exponential decay with a very long tail. Very very long and tiny tail. If Panspermia happens, whether on broad or 'local' scales, it will be from a long and tiny tail of a decaying survival curve.

A human life, and probably the evolutionary 'life' of human species, are of wrong scales to undertake such experiments. Clever observations of whatever's out there are the only way to address such questions.

 

Sorry, got lazy reading, and was remembering an earlier thread which seemed to suggest the idea was to put a Tesla in orbit around Mars.

I suppose I still have to file this under " Interesting, but I'm not going to worry too much about it".

 

Interesting that this came from a University......sadly, one from my home state!!!

The only bio hazard that threatens the red planet might indeed come from Space-X, but I do not think that Elon's roadster will be the delivery....vehicle.

 

Even at the Earth, 'burning up' is not assured. While most do so, portions of some make it all the way to the surface, daily.

From long ago astronomy books, I seem to remember that observations of fresh falls had sometimes found them coated with ice or frost, from internal cold. They did have a fusion outer crust, but apparently didn't spend enough time burning in the atmosphere for that to heat all the way through. They landed as a 'Baked Alaska' -- scorched outer crust, icy interior. That internal cold was enough for terrestrial moisture to condense and freeze on it after impact.

I must take this as evidence that sterilization by Earth reentry is not assured, even if it is the norm. OTOH, Venus' atmosphere's temperature and sulfuric acid content alone should sterilize any currently known Earthly critters, even without the heat of entry.

 

I still like the delicious irony and idea, that mankind could destroy themselves on this planet, primarily through poor ecological stewardship of the planet, but that life on earth could end up being reseeded by a returning Tesla, shot into space as "space junk".

It's just the type of joke the universe likes to play on itself.

 

Indeed.
The potter's hand....guided in this case by mirth.....