By popular demand, our weekly science & technology discussion is back!

Weekly news item:  “Here’s what will happen to the Tesla that SpaceX shot into space” (NBC News)

Whether you think it’s a remarkable and laudable achievement in the road to commercial space travel or a gaudy and wasteful display of late-stage capitalism gone berserk, you gotta admit it’s pretty goddamned impressive to launch a car into orbit around the Sun.

So what will the fate of the Roadster be?

In a press conference held after the launch, Musk said he expected the car to be “out there in space for maybe millions or billions of years.” But Bell isn’t so sure. He said that at some point — perhaps 50 to 100 years from now — it will be “a juicy target for salvage,” and someone will mount a new space mission to recapture the Roadster and bring it back to Earth.

If humanity even exists in 50 to 100 years, that is.  And judging by the leaders we have these days, that’s a pretty big “if”.  (Politics discussion!)

What else is going on in science & technology?