Ford Could Pull a Better Rocket Stunt than Elon Musk
Sending an electric car into space is cool, but imagine how incredible a Ford truck would look on Mars.
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is using his vast fortune to do some pretty cool things. He’s trying to build superhighway tunnels, he’s selling flamethrowers, and he’s trying to make solar energy and electric cars more affordable and practical than ever before. Musk also happens to be making the biggest advancements in space flight that our world has seen in decades with his SpaceX company. And just in case you live under the world’s most enormous rock, SpaceX made history once again when it launched Musk’s own Tesla Roadster into space on the Falcon Heavy rocket.
But here is the thing: We think Ford could have done it better. Much better.
Let’s start with the car of choice. Using your own personal car for a stunt like this is awesome, but imagine seeing images of a freshly-detailed Ford Lightning flying through our atmosphere. Not only would you be sending a car into space, it would be America’s best-selling nameplate, the Ford F-150. And we don’t know if you’ve ever seen one in person, but that supercharger whine from the 5.4L V8 is loud enough to drown out the rocket that would have launched it. We can’t think of any way that a Ford Lightning would not have improved that rocket launch.
Even post launch, Ford would have done a better job.
SpaceX has done something amazing. We just wish they would have worked with Ford to make it a little more amazing.
The original plan was for the Tesla Roadster to finish its flight by orbiting mars, but SpaceX botched the final burn and the Roadster is on its way to rest somewhere out well past Mars in the asteroid belt. Considering Musk’s Tesla car company is struggling to build a compact sedan with any kind of volume, it shouldn’t be surprising that his SpaceX company would mess up some of their rocket science math. But Ford manages to build more trucks in a year than many companies sell in total, so it seems like they could manage the details and get the Lightning to Mars.
And then instead of worrying about how to terraform the red planet, Ford fans could just look over and tell people, “There is already a Lightning storm orbiting that big red rock, thanks to the Blue Oval.”
Bad puns and dad jokes aside, SpaceX has done something amazing. We just wish they would have worked with Ford to make it a little more amazing.
Maybe when SpaceX prepares to test its “BFR” Big Falcon Rocket, it can launch with a badass new Ford Raptor attached to the nose. Call it the “Double BFR,” maybe.
Words and graphics by Christian Moe for Ford Truck Enthusiasts.
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