Chasing Elon Musk in an old French car
On February 6, 2018, SpaceX, one of the companies owned by Elon Musk, managed to launch the first Falcon Heavy. A giant leap for mankind, like Neil Armstrong would have said. Because with this rocket, manned missions to the Moon (once again) and to Mars become possible. And those missions also become a lot cheaper than before, because large parts of the rocket return to Earth and can therefore be used again.
Starman
On such a first test flight you don’t take expensive satellites. Usually a block of concrete is used as ballast, but Elon had a better idea: he sent his car. A Tesla Roadster, made by one of his other companies. With David Bowie on the speakers and The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy in the dashboardlocker. It resulted in stunningly surreal images.
Meanwhile in the Netherlands
Dutch media were so busy reporting about who exactly said what about whom, that they let the historic event pass almost unnoticed. Reportedly, a number of media used the excuse that they did not want to cooperate with a publicity stunt from Tesla.
Remarkably, popular magazine RTL Boulevard (showbiz! lifestyle! crime! and royalty!) showed the clearest signs of awareness that something special had happened.The show opened with it, and they brought a quite decent item, the light-hearted tone of the program taken into consideration.
National newspaper De Volkskrant, however, spent not more than 50 words on page 4 on the successful test flight. And two days later they spent even more words on a few sour readers’ cynical comments (megalomaniac bruiser! waste! pollution! stupidity!) But what can you expect of a newspaper that once wrote that Jupiter is the largest planet in the universe?
History in the making
Well, mark my words, in a hundred years time it will be obvious that in 2018 a modest Rotterdam image blog in 2018 had a better understanding of history in the making than all the big Dutch newspapers and television programs. I fear though that by that time this blog will no longer be regularly updated.
Citroën
And while I was annoyed by the the Dutch media’s navel-gazing, I spent my time well by making this little piece of space art shown below. Because if Elon Musk can launch his Tesla into space, I can do the same with a rusty old Citroën Deux Chevaux. Starman being chased by L’homme des étoiles. With Michel Fugain’s Une Belle Histoire on the speakers and a few baguettes, French cheeses and a bottle of wine in the backseat. Du pain, du vin, du Citroën!
PS:
I wrote this blog post in 2018. At that time, Elon Musk could still be considerd a somewhat eccentric man who was nevertheless mainly doing the right things. Recycling rockets and making electric cars cool, those are certainly no small achievements. And his city on Mars was definitely a promise for the not so remote future.
In recent years, however, Mr. Musk has been busy spoiling the atmosphere on Earth. He has expertly killed Twitter, helped a wannabe dictator to power and he is not ashamed of a Hitler salute more or less. But of course I could not have foreseen all that when I wrote this light-hearted, mildly positive story about the launch of the Falcon Heavy.
Actually, Elon and I only agree on one thing: that the exploration of the solar system should be tackled a bit more vigorously. But otherwise I completely distance myself from the man. I would not want to travel in a Starship to Mars with him, if he offered me a thousand bitcoins. Indeed I’d prefer that old Citroën, even though it might take a little longer to get there.
Ilon Musk is a great man. He is modern Einstein, not otherwise. A man with a capital letter. He has already embodied so many plans that were impossible, and that is not considered.