@RussellBorogove No anti-aliasing that I know of, unfortunately.

Will see if I can get commas in, or convert to readable numbers. Adding to my to-do list.

Okay, I think I just got that one in, take a look.

@PearsonArtPhoto You can always render at 2x and bilinear resize down... ;)

Looks good.

Whoa is Mars' orbit really that eccentric?

Wow it really is -- 1.382AU perihelion to 1.666AU aphelion

Yeah, it is pretty crazy like that.

Will look in to anti-aliasing, but...

I'll look in to a better plot library when I've got a few other things done, but for now...

@PearsonArtPhoto as far as distance travelled, distance along it's orbit in the Solar System inertial frame seems to be consistent with what is done for other spacecraft. I wouldn't even know how to even define distance travelled with respect to Earth, considering that half the time Roadster will be getting closer to Earth.

I'm rather confused by the current discussion, is distance not scalar and therefore just keeps counting up regardless of direction travelled?

So even if you were to measure it's distance travelled relative to the earth the only effect on the value would be with it's "starting point" moving with respect to it?

@Edlothiad it would still sometimes be closer to its starting point, and sometimes farther away. i'd say the easiest frame of reference would be the sun. But you wouldn't consider its distance from the sun, you'd consider how much it is moving from the sun's perspective. That's really the same as saying how many times it has completed its orbit, times how long each orbit is. You use the sun as the fixed point.

It's distance to the earth may change, but it's distance travelled is always the same? Or is this incorrect?

@kimholder I think I understand what the argument is against the earth reference frame, but (if high-school physics has taught me anything) if we're measuring the scalar, from it's point of view (in a 2D sense) it is just travelling in a straight line and that distance is the same regardless of frame of reference.

Oh shucks they inverted somehow

its direction of travel is constantly curving, because it is determined by the gravity of the sun (mostly).

calculating that distance over time maybe gets hairy if you include precession, but if you determine the circumference of the ellipse that it follows, and then just count how many times it has gone around it, that would be pretty close.

Oh I guess I didn't consider the fact that the solar system is hurtling around the galaxy and the galaxy itself hurtling across the universe, so really it's scalar displacement would be something ridiculous

yeah, let's not get into that :)

where is the fixed point from which one measures movement through the universe, hm?

Around myself of course ;)

:D

Newest thing I'm working on, showing what the alignment of planets will be at on key events.

yeah, i thought about that. if you aren't used to it, it can take a bit to understand why the roadster gets farther away from the earth than it does from the sun.

Yeah, I had wondered about it. I had my initial first guess, and just ignored it. But I was emailed a question about why the difference, and thought it would make an interesting question here.

ASDS #3 is under construction. To be named "A Shortfall of Gravitas" ASOG?

Will probably need at least 4 before too long, maybe more.

@PearsonArtPhoto If their cadence goes up, the week round trip for an ASDS on either coast could be a bottlenck. (But less likely in Pacific).

Is there a mode where all 3 Falcon Heavy boosters land at Sea?

I doubt there will ever be more then one in the Pacific.

I think the center core might be too far downrange to work... But interesting question.

LOL, I guess I asked that at the right time.

Is a question asking if an object under the gravitational influence more appropriate for astronomy rather than exploration?

@CBredlow Gravitational influence of what on what? But it sounds more like exploration than astronomy to me. Orbital mechanics fits on both sites - and so i may simply be biased. :) If one of the objects in this interaction is a spacecraft, then here.

I want to know if the roadster will be influenced by jupiters gravity in it's orbits

but i'm sure y'all are tired of those questions

yes. and yes, that goes here.

us? tired of questions? mercy no. :D

we had a question where that matter came up. let me link. but, you are certainly welcome to ask that as a separate question to get more detail. It might help someone else with a similar question find the information they want faster.

@kimholder Just got a Booster badge:-)

I might even get the gold one, the way I'm going.

@PearsonArtPhoto Gee, i wonder why...

i mean, how hard can it be, when you can go through your own site, which is getting scores of hits a minute :P

It's dialed down quite a bit.

For the fun of it, I searched for the website on twitter. It was kind of fun to see how many people mentioned it.

Actually, NM... Something happened recently that has increased it a bit more...

I'm sitting around 50/minute at the moment.

i'm sure it will continue to have a steady flow for years.

Hope so.

The goal is to get everything to the point in a few weeks that I can either automate it, or at least semi-automate it.

And then just let it be.

Good 404 page?

I like it.

That was the best Hitchiker's Guide quote I could find for the purpose.