Trying to rotate spacex's Tesla in space

[Martian Emigrant]

Hey all.

I did it again.

Went to look at the "Starman" in his car. Drifting away from the Earth.

 

And my right hand reached for the arrows on my keyboard and tried to rotate the car around so I could see the other side and a better view of the Earth.

 

Too much KSP obviously.

 

Anybody else care to admit to it?

 

 

ME

Edited February 10, 2018 by Martian Emigrant

[linuxgurugamer]

I did too

[katateochi]

I tried to right click and pan, then was like "doh, I'm an idiot", then thought "hmmm, I wonder what it's current altitude is" and hit m to go into map mode, I think I genuinely expected to see it's blue trajectory line...it's been a long day.

[MiffedStarfish]

Presses f2 for hud to set to prograde, cancel out that annoying spin

[Tex_NL]

1 hour ago, katateochi said:

I tried to right click and pan, then was like "doh, I'm an idiot", then thought "hmmm, I wonder what it's current altitude is" and hit m to go into map mode, I think I genuinely expected to see it's blue trajectory line...it's been a long day.

Yep. That's how you recognize a true KSP addict.

[RocketBlam]

I do that a LOT on YouTube videos of KSP and Eve. And Civilization too, come to think of it.

[SpacedCowboy]

Yup, just gotta get that other camera view!

[MR L A]

Well I tried to quicksave in real life the other day...

[ussoldier2002]

I do that when I watch Scott Manley videos from time to time. I am disappointed they didn't put solar panels on there to keep the cameras alive. I would be interested to know what that car looks like after a few years.

[blakemw]

On 2/19/2018 at 11:57 PM, ussoldier2002 said:

I do that when I watch Scott Manley videos from time to time. I am disappointed they didn't put solar panels on there to keep the cameras alive.

I imagine that communications was the major hurdle. Communicating with the Tesla beyond earth orbit would've required fancy tracking antennas on the Tesla (attitude control) and probably time on the DSN. It would've required turning the tesla into a spacecraft and having a form of ongoing mission control.

[Martian Emigrant]

11 hours ago, blakemw said:

I imagine that communications was the major hurdle. Communicating with the Tesla beyond earth orbit would've required fancy tracking antennas on the Tesla (attitude control) and probably time on the DSN. It would've required turning the tesla into a spacecraft and having a form of ongoing mission control.

I hadn't thought of that.

Stabilizing an antenna to transmit toward earth. That in itself is an exercise far beyond just "Fun" and PR.

Plus, in my opinion, what about showing a rapidly deteriorating Tesla? Could happen. That would show badly.

Or the camera, stabilisation, transmitter or something, anything goes wrong and then people say "Spacex can't do right and they want to send people to Mars".

 

ME

Edited February 22, 2018 by Martian Emigrant

[ussoldier2002]

On Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at 4:58 PM, blakemw said:

I imagine that communications was the major hurdle. Communicating with the Tesla beyond earth orbit would've required fancy tracking antennas on the Tesla (attitude control) and probably time on the DSN. It would've required turning the tesla into a spacecraft and having a form of ongoing mission control.

Good point. What about random snap shots periodically when there was comms? Not trying to be argumentative or anything. I'm just so curious about this stuff and it (in my opinion) seems like such a waste.

[Hans Dorn]

Agreed. He could at least have taken some student projects along with his dumb car.

 

And a Kerbal of course...

Edited February 23, 2018 by Hans Dorn

[Archgeek]

1 hour ago, Hans Dorn said:

Agreed. He could at least have taken some student projects along with his dumb car.

 

And a Kerbal of course...

He could have, but remember, this was a test payload on a machine with a predicted 50% chance of blowing up on the pad (they even took out insurance for the historic launch pad in question) that would typically be just a big chunk of something heavy like a big block of reinforced concrete.  I'd be sad to be the student whose lovingly crafted cubesat blew up on the launchpad with an experimental vehicle configuration.  An old car with a test space suit and some cameras was just for the lulz.