Why do scientists believe that radiation will tear the Starman's roadster, launched towards Mars, into pieces within a year, and if true how do we send probes to Mars and not have the same thing happen to them?
Viktor T. Toth, IT pro, part-time physicist
Answered 2h ago
Don’t believe everything you read on Fox News.
Radiation will most certainly damage that Tesla over time. For starters, ultraviolet light from the Sun will cause its shiny red finish to fade fairly quickly. Plastic parts, such as the steering wheel or the seats will begin to break down, possibly within weeks, maybe months. It won’t take long… chemical bonds really hate UV light. But structural bits, metal parts probably won’t be affected for a very, very long time.
I don’t know how much of the Tesla’s electronics were kept in this vehicle as it was prepared for launch, but it is pretty obvious that the car’s electronics were unpowered. They would probably not operate correctly if powered, because of unshielded circuits and components that are not hardened against ionizing radiation. Over time, the same radiation will permanently damage parts, starting with (I think) prematurely erasing any flash memory by flipping bits at random, but ultimately even destroying some semiconductor junctions.
I am pretty sure that the Tesla on board had its batteries removed. Taking those batteries to an untested environment would have been a serious, foolish, unnecessary risk. For the same reason, I suspect that all other fluids (e.g., A/C working fluid, hydraulic fluids) were fully drained before launch. So that’s not an issue, really.
However, thermal stress is. If you recall, the Tesla was slowly rotating in the video feed. That means that different parts were continuously exposed to either unfiltered solar radiation or the cold of deep space. Thermal management is a very important aspect of space probe design, and very obviously a terrestrial automobile was not designed that way. This thermal stress will likely cause serious damage over time, causing things to stress, crack, break, etc.
Having said all that… I suspect that, though damaged (with faded finish, decomposed plastic parts, maybe a cracked windshield and other signs of wear, not to mention a few tiny burn marks from micrometeoroid impacts) this Tesla will survive far longer as a recognizable road vehicle than any of its terrestrial counterparts, including models that eventually end up in a museum. I suspect that even thousands of years from now, if someone stumbles upon Musk’s Tesla, it will still look very much like an automobile.
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