We did mention it then. . . and we've mentioned it a few times since. It returned to top of mind, as Tesla just disclosed it received a new batch of SEC subpoenas -- due to Mr. Musk's likely non-compliance with a 2018 era SEC settlement. That centered on public, but non-SEC filed tweets polling whether he ought to sell ten per cent of his personal holdings. He did so. . . sell (destroying billions of dollars of independent shareholders' value, in the process).
But this is a more whimsical post. If you'd like to check up on Starman, you may click here -- from time to time. Musk meant for it to crash into Mars after several thousand years of obriting the Sun, in a very slowly closing orbit -- on approach to. . . Barsoom. But another, independent, physicist / mathematician thinks Musk's math was faulty (or said another way, his payload a little lighter or heavier than he thought). Perhaps the Starman dummy was not made of light carbon fiber, but rather of old department store plaster. Who knows (or cares, really)? It is actually more likely that Musk failed to account for the gravitational pull of being well outside Mars, and nearing the asteroid belt -- as that belt seems to have tugged it further off its originally intended (Musk-o-vian) line.
In any event, time marches on, for us all (and with it, many of our long-held perspectives do shift -- if we are wise). So, here's the latest, from the newspapers earlier this week:
. . .According to WhereIsRoadster, it is indeed heading toward Mars from about two million miles away. However, a calculation by the astrophysicist Hanno Rein, of the University of Toronto, has estimated that the Roadster would more likely crash into either Earth, Venus or the Sun—in about 10 million years.
His calculation has proven to be true so far. In November 2018, “Starman” passed the Mars orbit and drifted toward the solar system’s asteroid belt just as Rein predicted. . . .
Musk's personal orbital journey, thus far, has been every bit as oddly-shaped. . . as his Starman dummy's. About eight years ago, I was taken by the stroke of genius he exhibited in making his 'lectric car patents free -- to the world, to exploit (and propigate) his vision of a less polluted commute. Now, just as he hoped, the vision of an electric car future seems all but assured.
Along the way, to be certain -- he has acted like an infant almost more often than a visionary. . . but still, I can't look away. He's a compelling figure in the new millennium, for better or worse. Onward, into the sunshine here. . . be excellent to one another. [And almost poetically, one of Banksy's more memorable 2018 visions is on the move. . . again.]
नमस्ते
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