Tesla Shot To Mars Was Warning About Elon Musk’s Irresponsibility, Says Space Law Expert

An object in space that astronomers initially identified as a close-to-Earth asteroid turned out to be a Tesla electric car that Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched in 2018 as a stupid publicity stunt. Stupid because space junk is space junk.

Last month an amateur astronomer discovered what appeared to be the “asteroid”— designated 2018 CN41—when it seemed to be passing very close to Earth.

When the supposed space rock came within 150,000 miles of our planet—closer than the orbit of the Moon—there were fears that it might hit us. However, the Minor Planet Center, which officially names and tracks such space rocks, retracted the findings within a day and confirmed there would be no collission.

The agency revealed that the object wasn’t an asteroid but a cherry-red Tesla Roadster that Musk charged with being shot into space during the first flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.

There is just a 6% chance that the car—complete with a mannequin driver named “Starman”—will collide with Earth in the next one million years but that doesn’t excuse the launching of Musk’s sustainability-be-damned Mars-aiming junk, believes Thomas Cheney, a space law academic specializing in the environmental aspects of space governance.

The launch into space of the Roadster “highlights that it was irresponsible of the United States to authorize the launch,” said Cheney, a Vice Chancellors Research Fellow in Law at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

“Space is big, and the likelihood this causes issues beyond annoying people is minimal, but launching things into outer space should be done responsibly and for clear-cut justifiable purposes, not on the whims of a billionaire,” stated Cheney. “It should also have been a warning sign about what sort of person Mr. Musk is.”

There’s zero risk that Musk will face any future consequences for adding car-shaped trash to the universe.

“The only legal trouble Musk could get into is if [the Tesla]

hits another human-made object and causes damage, but even then under the liability regime established by the Liability Convention and the Outer Space Treaty it would need to be proven that the Tesla was ‘at fault’—which is something that we’re yet to define in any useful way—and the injured party would need to be willing to go to the effort and expense of taking legal action against SpaceX and the US government as ultimately the US government is liable under international law for any damage.”

“The picture is slightly clearer,” continued Cheney, “if [the Tesla] re-enters the atmosphere and causes damage on Earth, but even then, the actual history of claims shouldn’t cause Mr. Musk too much anguish.

“There may be some concern about contamination if it lands on another celestial body, although it’s not clear if anyone has standing to take legal action should that occur. The treaty specifies that concerned parties should request consultation and indicates that this should be done before launch, and from my not-an-expert-in-orbital-mechanics understanding, its trajectory means it shouldn’t hit another celestial body for centuries, if not longer.”

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.