So Mr Musk is sending his Roadster to Mars presumably to have a vehicle when he arrives there in a few years. However, doesn't this launch and extended time on another planet risk bricking the battery?
From what i have read, the car isn't going to land on mars. just sit in mars orbit forever. And i don't think he would launch it with the battery just in case the rocket blows up. Probably don't want cells raining down while they explode either.
It's unlikely to go into Mars orbit, unless they have hidden a bunch of thrusters in there to slow it down to get captured by Mars' gravity. More likely it will be in a permanent Sun-centric orbit with the distance to Mars as the aphelion (furthest point from Sun) and Earth's orbit as the perihelion (nearest point to Sun). Either that or it will get close to Mars and get a Voyager-style gravity assist to the outer Solar System. Should also say that we are not at the ideal point in the Earth and Mars' orbits to do a transfer anyway, although I think the FH has enough spare payload mass to make up for that (note - speculation, I haven't worked this out. Edit: Elon just confirmed it Elon Musk on Twitter ), but my money would be on the former statement above.
NYT confirms it's an elliptical orbit around the sun that touches the Mars orbit. Watch the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch Today
Of course, the Roadster looks to have been stripped a bit. The center console section is missing inside and since we can see through the front wheel it looks like most the front guts have also been removed. BTW, anyone know the VIN?
I gather they thought the Van Allen belt radiation might damage some of the equipment. Apart from the core section landing problem, it seems like it worked as well as they had hoped.
The Roadster will go beyond the orbit of Mars now (they had more fuel left than expected) Elon Musk on Twitter
