Rob Verger, assistant tech editor at Popular Science, discusses SpaceX's successful launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket that propelled Elon Musk's red Tesla Roadster into orbit. The release of the car into space has prompted people to ask the question, "what now?"
Verger notes that it will take two and a half years for the rocket to orbit around the sun and end up back where it started from. It will be another five years before we could potentially see it with a telescope.
Verger says the Roadster will face significant deterioration due to radiation and a "sandblasting" of dust that will cause the car to lose its cherry red color. He talks about the vastness of space, noting it's unlikely the car would be destroyed by an asteroid.
Irrigation might have saved Jackson's hay, but she and her husband rejected the idea about 10 years ago over the cost: as much as $75,000 for a new well and all the equipment. But now — with an extended drought and another U.S. heat wave this week that will broil her land about an hour northwest of Dallas for days in 100-degree-plus temperatures — Jackson said she is “kind of rethinking.”
India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole on Wednesday — a historic voyage to uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water, and a technological triumph for the world’s most populous nation.