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Have looked at current videos of Starman and not found data as to it's current position.

Is there a site plotting the current position of Starman?

PearsonArtPhoto
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Ted Lawson
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    Before Starman left earth orbit It could be tracked here: https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=43205 However now it's off in interplanetary space and will probably never be seen (or see anything except the sun) ever again unless someone goes and gets it. – Dragongeek Feb 07 '18 at 20:22
  • @Dragongeek Are you implying that it can never be tracked and communicated with? – Mike Waters Feb 07 '18 at 21:07
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    @MikeWaters, Yes. As of 12 hours after launch it has no more fuel or battery power and no solar panels or other power generation methods. "Tracking" in the traditional sense dosen't really make sense here. Spacex knows what the orbit is and there's basically nothing that would change it until the sun explodes. If you were to construct a powerful enough telescope in space and point it at it, you could see it. – Dragongeek Feb 07 '18 at 21:11
  • @Dragongeek Thanks. What is the last known position? – Mike Waters Feb 07 '18 at 21:21
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    @MikeWaters SpaceX hasn't made public exactly where it is right now. There's not really a "last known position". Just because we can't see it, doesn't mean we don't know where it is. Space is extremely predictable mathematically. – Dragongeek Feb 07 '18 at 21:26
  • @Dragongeek that's certainly true. Reflected sunlight from the attached 2nd stage body will also ensure that it can be tracked optically for a while longer, and there is radar tracking as well. See for example this excellent answer to the question "What is the current record for the farthest detection of a “dead” spacecraft?" – uhoh Feb 08 '18 at 05:10
  • Now it's up to Mr. Amazon Bezos to test a retriever Rocket for old satellites by picking up Mr. Musk's Roadstar again next time when it is passing Earth somehow close enough. This would be the only way even to equal or overclass the stunt of Mr. Musk. – user23187 Feb 08 '18 at 12:56

1 Answers1

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It's really rough, but I'm putting together a website to track it, based on the best data we know. I'm sure it's not 100% accurate, but it's fairly close, at least for now. http://www.whereisroadster.com/

enter image description here

PearsonArtPhoto
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  • You should add to that website an ETA for Mars orbit as well. So... how far was mars from earth when Elon's roadster made its burn towards Mars? Based on that I would assume the distance then calculated by its current speed? I know nothing about this stuff but is that not close enough to calculate? – Zachary Feb 08 '18 at 15:14
  • @Zachary It will not orbit Mars. However, he might be able to add an ETA for Mars flyby. – called2voyage Feb 08 '18 at 15:20
  • @Zachary I have a lot of things planned for the website. I'm hoping to get to at least the most important ones this weekend. Feel free to talk with me in the chatroom more about it, let's keep the comments uncluttered. – PearsonArtPhoto Feb 08 '18 at 15:21
  • Here's some new information about its orbit. – Mike Waters Feb 09 '18 at 19:28
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    @MikeWaters The tracking data behind my website comes from JPL Horizons, which is the same one used to draw this conclusion. I'm happy to know that my chart looks a lot like the one they used, however! – PearsonArtPhoto Feb 09 '18 at 19:37