Eight planets orbit the sun, together with some asteroids, dwarf planets, and Elon Musk’s car. In 2018, Elon Musk boarded the Falcon Heavy rocket with his personal midnight cherry Tesla Roadster. On its maiden voyage (the rocket, not the Roadster), the Tesla was sent into permanent orbit around the sun.

The first question anyone would ask is whether the car was on a scientific journey. Amusingly, the answer is ‘no’. The special payload was little more than a test launch. The Tesla Roadster quickly became an internet sensation through meme culture. Everyone spoke about it for a few months as the electric car cleared thousands of miles in an endless abyss.

Looking back half a decade later, one may wonder where Elon Musk’s car is at this very moment. Surprisingly, its exact whereabouts are still known with a degree of accuracy.

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The 2010 Tesla Roadster And Its Intergalactic Easter Eggs

2010 Tesla Roadster side quarter view
Tesla

Elon Musk’s car isn’t any old vehicle he couldn’t dispose of. The 2010 Tesla Roadster is an electrifying force in the sports car world. No gas, no emissions, just pure eco-friendly power for a little over $100,000. With a 375-volt AC induction air-cooled electric motor that generates 248 horsepower and 276 ft/lbs of torque, the Roadster can accelerate, leaving many supercars in its dust.

Its lithium-ion battery pack, which can be recharged in as little as 3.5 hours, gives it an impressive EPA-estimated range of over 200 miles. Impressive and pricey, but Elon Musk didn’t think so. One look at his bank balance convinced the billionaire that his EV would be the ideal dummy payload.

Starman is the sole passenger in the 2010 Tesla Roadster in space
Steve Jurvetson Via Wikimedia Commons

Before taking off, SpaceX packed the Roadster with intergalactic Easter eggs. Behind the wheel sat a spacesuit-clad mannequin nicknamed "Starman". The dashboard had a playful sign "Don't Panic" as a nod to the classic S story, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But SpaceX was far from done.

They added a data storage device filled with the works of Sci-Fi master Isaac Asimov and a plaque engraved with the names of thousands of SpaceX employees. If an alien ship stumbles upon the space Tesla, they are sure to get a rich taste of peak human culture.

Tracking Starman And The Exact Location Of The Tesla Roadster

SpaceX Launches Tesla Roadster Into Space
SpaceX Via Wikimedia Commons

A few decades back, people thought we would have flying cars by 2023. And we do! That’s Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster still cruising through space at breakneck speeds.

Since its launch in February 2018, the Roadster has traveled billions of miles through the solar system. This is no surprise, considering that it is in an elliptical heliocentric orbit alongside the rest of the heavenly bodies. In simpler terms, it has been orbiting the sun beside other planets.

As photogenic as Tesla cars are, this Roadster has unfortunately dodged all cameras for a few years. The primary reason is that it’s too far away and too tiny to pick up on a telescope (in comparison to other celestial objects). The last pictures taken of the Roadster were right next to Earth, moments after it entered space.

Starman and Tesla Roadster
Via: SpaceX 

The good news is we know exactly where it is even if we can’t see it. The Roadster has its own entry in NASA’s Horizons database as “object -143205, SpaceX Roadster (spacecraft) (Tesla).” The 2010 Electric sports car is currently in an orbit between Earth and Mars, at a distance of 202,000,000 miles from Earth and 282,400,000 miles from Mars.

The Tesla Roadster has gone well beyond its 36,000-mile warranty and has achieved a fuel economy of about 20,075.7 miles per gallon. The EV has cleared 2.5 billion miles across its 3 complete orbits around the sun. That’s enough distance to drive all of Earth’s man-made roads 63 times.

Until it passes by Mars in 2035, Space Oddity playing for the 500,000th time in his ear, will have to keep the Starman’s company. That is if the battery is still alive. Earth will get a handshake from the Roadster in 2047 and 2050 when it flies by within a few million miles of our planet.

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Starman And The Tesla Will Be Having A Hard Time In Space

Starman chillin in the Tesla Roadster in space cabin view
SpaceX Via Wikimedia Commons

Flying through space is a little different from driving on the road. You don’t have stop signs or traffic lights, and your brakes don’t function. Celestial bodies bump into one another like people in a crowded mall on Black Friday. Without a magnetic field or atmosphere, the Roadster is likely to crash into asteroids in its orbit.

Even if Starman did manage to swerve around space rocks, the radiation from the sun will burn off the paint job. Even worse, exposure to direct sunlight can damage the equipment aboard the car. It is possible that the once elegant-looking 2010 Tesla Roadster and Starman are now unrecognizable.

But the sports car isn’t going anywhere. The Roadster's journey will continue for millions of years, and its legacy will live on long after its battery has run out. As we continue to explore the depths of space, the Roadster will serve as a beacon of hope, reminding us that there is no limit to what we can achieve.