Good evening Steemians. If any of you on this wonderful platform are even the least bit interested in space exploration than this post is for you. Being in awe and enthralled by the mysteries of space has qualified me as a space-geek since my earliest recollections.
On February 6th 2018 the SpaceX company launced its Falcon Heavy rocket. The Falcon Heavy (which was earlier described as the Falcon 9 Heavy) is a variant of the Falcon 9 vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 rocket core with two additional Falcon 9 first stages as strap-on boosters.
Although the planned intent was to land the core and side boosters back to earth, only the side boosters returned safely and simultaneously. An incredible and first time feat achieved by the genius minds and staff of SpaceX. The two side boosters that went up this week, which had already flown on their own Falcon 9 missions, are being retired. If you missed the launch it's definitely worth viewing
Some of you already know that Elon Musk CEO of SpaceX and product architecht of Tesla sent his beloved $100,000 red Tesla Roadster sports car as a payload, complete with a mannequin at the wheel in a space suit. David Bowie's classic Space Oddity was playing on a loop in the roadster as it was hurtled into orbit. Destination an orbital trajectory for Mars, but the third engine burn of the Falcon Heavy upper stage "exceeded" that orbit acording to a tweet by Elon Musk.
Fortunately there are even bigger and brighter space-geeks than myself who crunched the numbers and tried to ascertain the true trajectory after this information was released. What now is being confirmed is that someone made an error on the mathematics.
"The asteroid orbit plot was just a mistake," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. McDowell calculated that the Roadster will venture by Mars at a safe distance of about 70 million miles (110 million kilometers) as it crosses the planet's orbit in July. The closest it will ever get to Mars will be on October of 2020 at a distance of about 4.4 million miles (7 million km), which is still "well outside" Mars' gravitational sphere of influence. - Source Info
Check out the live feed of the roadster on its journey -----------
Now after millions of people around the world and hundreds of people from Cape Canaveral Brevard County, Florida, United States watched the launch of the rocket and return of the side boosters... people online are calling it a hoax. This is definitely one of thee most stupidest things that I currently am reading on the internet. - http://www.iflscience.com/space/flatearthers-think-spacexs-falcon-heavy-launch-was-fake-because-of-course-they-do/
If you watch the roadster live feed, there is a live feed chatroom where you can find people trolling or simply denying that this event took place. The conspiracy theories haven't stopped with some even saying that the rocket launch and booster landings that were televised used reverse video techniques.
National Geographic was even filming https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/elon-musk-reacts-spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-space-science/ guess they are known for lying to the public and are part of the conspiracy. Better yet I guess all of these people "on their cell phones" have the editing capability to fool us all as well.
In closing I would like to thank Elon Musk and those like him who dream big and reach for the stars. To the "flat-earthers" I would like to say "EAT IT!" you are WRONG!
Bruh the earth is flat and in a dome. Everyone knows that. Elon Musk and his rocket are fake news. 😂😂😂 I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself.
I would expect no less from someone who likes Dogecoin haha---I'm sorry I couldn't help myself. Thanks for the laugh it earned you a follow.
can normal human like us can afford the space exploration ? Or the dream is coming true
It won't be about affordability. It will be the common people who will do all the hard work to colonize Mars for example... Then the wealthy will leisurely follow. Space flight in the next 10 years will be a travel destination in the $50k USD range.