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A comment on SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to asteroid belt. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by snowwrestler on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @11:11AM (#16325384)
To be clear, they analyzed the likelihood that the Roadster would hit a planet (exceedingly small), not the likelihood that the Roadster is carrying biological life from Earth (which is exceedingly high).
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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by jonknee on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @12:52PM (#16326452)
Though the odds of that life surviving for extended periods of time in space is close to nil.
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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by mattmanser on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @12:59PM (#16326521)
Errrrrrr:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Research...

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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by jonknee on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @01:01PM (#16326535)
We have very different definitions of extended periods of time. Elon's talking about it orbiting for millions of years. It's definitely not going to hit anything anytime soon.
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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by mulmen on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @08:55PM (#16329575)
He also completely missed the intended orbit so you can't use that "millions of years" number as evidence that it will not hit something.
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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by jonknee on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @10:22PM (#16329927)
That is still a good bet to make, it's very hard to hit anything even if you spent considerable effort specifically trying to. Also, there wasn't an intended orbit as much as there was a general direction and an "empty the tank" burn.
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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by mulmen on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @10:24PM (#16329932)
Yeah I saw that in another comment further down the chain. With all the hype around the Mars shot I assumed the ability to accurately place the car in orbit was a worthwhile goal. Not being a rocket scientist I wasn't aware that just knowing how far the thing can go is equally (or more?) interesting.
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