Tesla in Space Will Likely Be Destroyed by Space Dust, Cosmic Rays, Scientists Say

Manned by a mannequin dubbed "Starman," the Tesla Roadster is cruising toward Mars. It may make a return trip past the Earth, coming close enough to possibly be observed with a telescope, said Tomohiko Narita, College of the Holy Cross chair of physics and owner of WhereisRoadster.com. 

Though the car's trajectory is still unclear, it’s certain that it won’t look the same if and when it returns. 

According to Narita, space dust moving at high speeds are likely to batter the sports car and reduce it to an “inert piece of space junk.”

“Those little motes of dust, which are mostly just fractions of grams, are going to be hitting the car at 20 kilometers per second,” NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts senior scientific advisor Ron Turner told Popular Science. “They’ll vaporize and scatter the paint and make nice little pits in the metal.”  

Radiation will also play a part in beating up the Tesla. 

(MORE: NASA Releases Farthest Photos Ever Taken)

Though the researchers are certain the tiny particles will be hitting the car, it’s unlikely the vehicle will crash into larger objects like spacecraft or comets. 

“If it does by coincidence hit an asteroid, that's the end of that,” Narita said. “But it’s my speculation that the chance of that is pretty small.”

The car has already begun drifting further into deep space, becoming even harder to spot with a telescope. 

Planetary Science senior editor Emily Lakdawalla tweeted that the vehicle’s orbit is uncertain due to its lack of radio transmissions and the fact that it has no intended trajectory outside of going “as far as possible.”

“At this point, it’s basically an asteroid,” she added. 

Narita suggests that in roughly two and a half years, the car could loop around the sun before returning to roughly the same area it was launched from. He also says we may be able to spot it from Earth within five years. 

“Someday, maybe someone will find the relic of what appears to be a car or a hunk of metal with shredded rubber and destroyed plastic covering it,” Narita said.