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Where are the cameras on the Starman mounted? I see it (the entire payload) is a small engine with the roadster mounted on top of it. There are camera shots of the nozzle of the payload, of the vehicle from the hood looking back, from the driver's seat, and from the side (+ possibly others I'm missing).

Is there any details on where exactly they put cameras (and why)? The shots it's getting so far are pretty incredible, and when it gets to Mars I imagine they made sure it'll be setup for some valuable photos as well.

Side shot: enter image description here

Hood shot: enter image description here

Nozzle shot: enter image description here

Driver's seat: enter image description here

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2 Answers 2

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There seem to be 3 on-car cameras, 2 of these are very clear from the "Starman in Red Roadster" post on Elon Musk's Instagram

I've tried to highlight 3 of the Cameras, two of which (Hood and side shots) are abundantly clear, and the Dash shot seems to be hidden between the seats, over Starman's shoulder.

Starman in Red Roadster cameras

Using the trusty zoom and enhance we could get a better shot of the over-the-shoulder camera:

OTS camera

As for the Second Stage Camera, this seems to be a standard camera fitted on most F9s that launch, to provide footage of the second stage, below is an examples from Iridium-4 and the Formosat-5:

enter image description here enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the details. So that's it? No cameras setup to get cool snapshots of space or Mars? I guess as others pointed out, flying through Mars or Earth orbit doesn't mean anything interesting (i.e. a planet) is going to be there when this 'satellite' is. $\endgroup$
    – cr0
    Feb 7, 2018 at 14:09
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    $\begingroup$ Nothing really no. You could see Earth from the various on-board cameras. Whether or not they've ditched the Second Stage booster is unclear to me (probably clearer to the experts here). However the Roadster only had power for ~12 hours. $\endgroup$
    – Edlothiad
    Feb 7, 2018 at 14:28
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There was a picture of the Tesla on its Payload Adapter (PLA) released just before the launch, that showed some structure holding what look like cameras.

These were not in the earlier shots of the Tesla on the PLA.

Early photos of Tesla on PLA

Then we saw:

Camera to the front of me, camera to left, here I am stuck in the middle with you

So I would say, Camera to the Front, Camera to the left, and here is Starman, stuck in the middle with you.

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    $\begingroup$ "When it gets to Mars" may not be as impressive as we might hope. I've only read that it's going to reach Mars' orbit, and not necessarily at the same time as the Red Planet. Considering the dramatic shots of Earth in the background, I'd agree that having similar imagery of Mars would be great! $\endgroup$
    – fred_dot_u
    Feb 6, 2018 at 22:43
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    $\begingroup$ @fred_dot_u The batteries will be long dead by that point. No solar panels. We are only going to get a few hours of feed before it dies. Also, going to a orbit that is further out than Mars's it is not going anywhere 'near' Mars itself. Alas. $\endgroup$
    – geoffc
    Feb 6, 2018 at 22:47
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    $\begingroup$ I find it difficult to understand why there isn't a SuperCharger in a suitable orbit. $\endgroup$
    – fred_dot_u
    Feb 6, 2018 at 22:49

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