Elon Musk has many traits, and arguably the most admirable of these is that he’s a man of his word.
When the Tesla owner says he’s going to do something there’s a remarkable chance that it will probably happen.
So when the inventor and entrepreneur tweeted at the weekend that the first test launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket would contain a Midnight Cherry (red for a red planet) Tesla Roadster bound for Mars, many wondered if this was actually a joke.
Well after a confusing few days during which it was reported that he was just messing around, it now appears that the story is in fact true.
According to Ars Tecnica, a number of emails were exchanged between Musk and the website’s reporter and Musk did in fact confirm that he would be sending a car to Mars.
The car would be part of a test payload for SpaceX’s largest rocket ever, the Falcon Heavy.
With 27 rockets and the ability to launch almost three times the amount of payload into orbit SpaceX is hoping its new rocket will become the gold standard for sending equipment and humans into space.
It’ll be the first major test of the rocket and as Musk points out, there’s a distinct possibility that neither the rocket or the car will even make it to Mars, instead exploding in a fiery ball of rocket fuel and metal.
Of course if it does work then Mars could soon be playing host to not only one of the fastest production cars in the world, but some digital evidence of one of the greatest living musicians on this planet.
Falcon Heavy’s maiden flight will reportedly take part in January 2018.