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Robotic missions are cool. I'd certainly like to see more of them in inhospitable parts of the solar system! Getting people out of Earth's gravity well and set

Robotic missions are cool. I'd certainly like to see more of them in inhospitable parts of the solar system! Getting people out of Earth's gravity well and setting up a base somewhere that could grow by itself is super useful though. Imagine it like climbing out of a deep valley onto a plain (it's not literally a plain but the requirements regarding delta-v are so much lower when not going into a well at a planet). There are other valleys (or rather pits) in this plain (i.e. the gas giants, which have gravity wells that we wouldn't get out of again with current technology) but it's a lot easier to do useful stuff 'up there' once you don't have to climb out of Earth's gravity well each and everytime you want to do something out there. Edit: Here's a graphic I just found: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057669320 https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057669320

Jaruzel 7y ago
Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/681/ https://xkcd.com/681/
- jacquesm 7y ago
  XKCD's are not obligatory. As I wrote before they are the clever person's reaction gif in many cases and only occasionally provide useful content.
  - Jaruzel 7y ago
    The 'obligatory' was tongue-in-cheek to be honest, I should have add the /s suffix.
- _Microft 7y ago
  That's always a nice one. I had to exclude xkcd to find another graphic of the gravity wells because the use of this graphic is so widespread that it hid all other results.
twic 7y ago
A related visualisation is a delta-V map: https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1ktjfi/deltav_map_of_the_solar_system/ https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1ktjfi/deltav_map_of... AIUI this takes in the cost of both climbing gravity wells, and changing orbital speed and inclination.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  My favourite is this one: https://old.reddit.com/r/space/comments/29cxi6/i_made_a_deltav_subway_map_of_the_solar_system/ https://old.reddit.com/r/space/comments/29cxi6/i_made_a_delt....
K0SM0S 7y ago
This is totally right. You might really like Isaac Arthur on YouTube if you don't know him already. "Orbital rings" [1] in his "Upward Bound" series might be just right your alley. Of course, there's so much more he produced, it's even hard to keep up. I personally dream of some "Megastructures" he suggests... Actually already began myself to think of a Dyson Swarm around Earth (for starters) which could then serve as a positional basis for future orbital rings. He really inspired me to think bigger, now. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMbI6sk-62E&list=PLIIOUpOge0LsGJI_vni4xvfBQTuryTwlU&index=9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMbI6sk-62E&list=PLIIOUpOge0...
- wnkrshm 7y ago
  It's absolutely right, but I'd argue we should still send mostly robots from the moon. There are enough people on Earth to look at interesting things in the returned data and seize the initiative once anything new pops up.

Jaruzel 7y ago

Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/681/ https://xkcd.com/681/

jacquesm 7y ago
XKCD's are not obligatory. As I wrote before they are the clever person's reaction gif in many cases and only occasionally provide useful content.
- Jaruzel 7y ago
  The 'obligatory' was tongue-in-cheek to be honest, I should have add the /s suffix.
_Microft 7y ago
That's always a nice one. I had to exclude xkcd to find another graphic of the gravity wells because the use of this graphic is so widespread that it hid all other results.

twic 7y ago

A related visualisation is a delta-V map: https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1ktjfi/deltav_map_of_the_solar_system/ https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1ktjfi/deltav_map_of... AIUI this takes in the cost of both climbing gravity wells, and changing orbital speed and inclination.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
My favourite is this one: https://old.reddit.com/r/space/comments/29cxi6/i_made_a_deltav_subway_map_of_the_solar_system/ https://old.reddit.com/r/space/comments/29cxi6/i_made_a_delt....

K0SM0S 7y ago

This is totally right. You might really like Isaac Arthur on YouTube if you don't know him already. "Orbital rings" [1] in his "Upward Bound" series might be just right your alley. Of course, there's so much more he produced, it's even hard to keep up. I personally dream of some "Megastructures" he suggests... Actually already began myself to think of a Dyson Swarm around Earth (for starters) which could then serve as a positional basis for future orbital rings. He really inspired me to think bigger, now. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMbI6sk-62E&list=PLIIOUpOge0LsGJI_vni4xvfBQTuryTwlU&index=9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMbI6sk-62E&list=PLIIOUpOge0...

wnkrshm 7y ago
It's absolutely right, but I'd argue we should still send mostly robots from the moon. There are enough people on Earth to look at interesting things in the returned data and seize the initiative once anything new pops up.