SpaceX has updated the public about the journey of Starman, a mannequin sitting in the driver’s seat of a Tesla Roadster that has been roaming space for the past two years. It turns out Starman may outrun NASA, Roscosmos, and other space agencies and become the first "human" to land on Mars. SpaceX said Starman made its first approach to within 0.05 astronomical units, or under 5 million miles from the Red Planet.
The post has since gone viral, with social media users bombarding SpaceX with questions and comments.
Some users wanted Starman to take photos of Mars and wondered if the Tesla Roaster would able to land on the Red Planet.
Others worried about the car's rechargeable batteries and windows…
Some netizens feared that Starman's journey could trigger war with an alien civilisation and berated the company for contributing to the problem of space debris.
Still others said they wish a real man was in the driver’s seat and assumed that in the future the car will be regarded as a museum piece
The Tesla Roadster was launched into space in February 2018 as a dummy load to test a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The car attached to the rocket’s second stage has already made a full trip around the Sun. Elon Musk, who heads both Tesla and SpaceX said that with this launch he wanted to inspire people about the "possibility of something new happening in space". SpaceX is now working on a programme to facilitate space travel in order to colonise other planets.