Updated

Updated · Space.com · Jun 25

3 Experts Say 'F9' Space-Car Scene Borrows Real Flight Ideas but Breaks Orbital Physics

Updated

Updated · Space.com · Jun 25

3 Experts Say 'F9' Space-Car Scene Borrows Real Flight Ideas but Breaks Orbital Physics

Q: Is it physically possible to modify a car to achieve orbit, or does the fuel-to-weight ratio make it impossible?

A standard car cannot realistically be modified to reach orbit. The main barrier is the mass ratio: to get into low Earth orbit, a vehicle must reach about 7.8 kilometers per second, and real launch systems devote most of their liftoff mass to propellant. As physicist Ashmeet Singh noted in assessments of the “F9” scene, a car-sized vehicle with a few boosters simply would not carry enough fuel to achieve that speed. The problem is not just fuel quantity but the entire design. Cars are heavy for their size, with structures, wheels, steering systems and cabins built for roads, not for maximizing propellant fraction. Orbital rockets are mostly tanks and engines, made as light as possible, and often use multiple stages to shed dead weight during ascent. A modified car that kept anything like a normal car body would be far too inefficient. The “F9” sequence did borrow one real aerospace idea: air launch. Experts said dropping a vehicle from around 50,000 feet, as in Virgin Galactic-style systems, can reduce the work rockets must do. Nitrous oxide is also a real oxidizer. But those details do not solve the core physics. The Fiero’s fiberglass body would likely fail under launch heating and vibration, and its steering wheel would be useless in vacuum. In theory, if you stripped a car down and rebuilt it so extensively that it became a lightweight rocket with a car shell, it might fly. But at that point it would no longer meaningfully be a car; it would be a rocket disguised as one.

1 articles · Updated · Space.com · Jun 25

Three aerospace and physics experts said the "F9" scene is not pure nonsense: its air-launch concept resembles real systems such as Pegasus and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, which drops from about 40,000 feet.
Bryan Schmidt said lifting a vehicle to 50,000 feet before ignition could reduce rocket work, and the film’s nitrous oxide tank echoes SpaceShipTwo’s oxidizer choice.
David Cohen said the movie’s carrier aircraft is a visual mashup and the Fiero’s release is implausible, with the car positioned dangerously close to the plane’s tail and lacking realistic deployment testing.
Ashmeet Singh said the biggest scientific failure is orbit itself: staying in orbit requires roughly 7.8 kilometers per second, far beyond what a car with a few boosters could achieve.
The experts added that a normal Fiero would overheat past 1,000°C, steering in vacuum would do nothing, and the improvised suits and ignored G-forces underline that the sequence favors spectacle over realism.

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Space.com6h ago

Experts Assess Scientific Plausibility of 'F9' Car-into-Space Scene

Besides G-forces, what overlooked dangers would F9's heroes face inside a car in the vacuum of space?

How do filmmakers decide when to ignore physics for spectacle in franchises like Fast & Furious?

Is it physically possible to modify a car to achieve orbit, or does the fuel-to-weight ratio make it impossible?

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1 total

Space.com6h ago

Experts Assess Scientific Plausibility of 'F9' Car-into-Space Scene

3 Experts Say 'F9' Space-Car Scene Borrows Real Flight Ideas but Breaks Orbital Physics

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