# Did SpaceX intend to overshoot Mars?

There seems to be a lot of buzz around the Internet that the now famous Roadster is going to overshoot mars. Was this intentional, just to show the kind of capacity it is capable of? Or was there some sort of miscalculation that caused them to burn for too long, or could there be other reasons for the overshoot?

• There may indeed be other reasons. See for example Max Fagin's video after 02:00 which mentions a possible use of a perturbation from a near approach to Mars to prevent future intercepts with Earth's orbit. Also here. – uhoh Feb 8 '18 at 21:55
• A fair point - the obvious followup to "was it intentional" is "why" I suppose! – corsiKa Feb 8 '18 at 21:57
• It's a good question. It's better not to pre-guess the answer within the question. Leading questions like "Is it A or B?" can backfire if it's actually "C". – uhoh Feb 8 '18 at 21:59
• Possible duplicate of Was SpaceX's venture into the asteroid belt a "convenient accident" on purpose? – ReactingToAngularVues Feb 9 '18 at 2:31
• @ReactingToAngularVues there is a much better answer here than there is there. In fact I believe the answer there is problematic (I've left a comment). I think in this case the close vote is not helpful. – uhoh Feb 9 '18 at 3:51

The only miscalculation was in an image that Elon Musk tweeted that showed about the correct $C_3$, but also showed a miscalculated and way too large resulting aphelion. The correct aphelion is closer to 1.7 AU.