Website tracking ‘Starman,’ Elon Musk’s Tesla on road to Mars

Zipping along at 43,177 mph, Elon Musk’s cherry-red Tesla Roadster has exceeded its 36,000-mile warranty — 720 times, in fact.

Dummy driver “Starman” is by now sick of listening to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” As of Tuesday afternoon, it’s been played close to 4,000 times since the Feb. 6 launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

How do we know all this?

A website called “Where is Roadster” is tracking the car as it heads toward Mars.

Ben Pearson, a Lockheed Martin engineer using data from JPL Horizons (and unaffiliated with SpaceX), registered the site Feb. 7 and is posting the Roadster’s position.

“The car is 135,251,761 miles … from Mars, moving toward the planet at a speed of 43,175 miles/hour (69,484 km/hour, 19.30 km/s),” the site said a little after 1 p.m.

“Pearson explained that the Roadster will closely pass Earth in 2091 and it could make for a perfect time for ‘space enthusiasts’ to retrieve it,” said The Express in England.

Capitalizing on the interest, the site says: “Coming Soon:
WhereIsRoadster.com branded swag! Simulated Views from Roadster.”