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a rocket on a super-Earth would need to have a mass of about 440,000 tons (400,000 metric tons), due to fuel requirements, the study said. That's on the order o
by NotACop182 4y ago
a rocket on a super-Earth would need to have a mass of about 440,000 tons (400,000 metric tons), due to fuel requirements, the study said. That's on the order of the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
Just imagine the effort to get one satellite up. Now this would open the door for them to find new ways to make it to orbit.
- denton-scratch 4y agoLoads of small nukes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...
- rbanffy 4y agoIt would also strongly motivate the inhabitants of the planet to permanently leave it.
- denton-scratch 4y agoYeah, I know! I didn't mean to suggest it was a good idea. But if you want to get The Great Pyramid of Giza into space, that's how you'd have to do it (i.e., it's possible in principle). I think the Orion project people spoke of a spaceship the size of a large hotel; with plenty of lead for screening cosmic rays. They claimed there'd be so much lifting capacity that keeping weight down wouldn't be an issue - you could have a barbershop with real barber's chairs. I don't see much future in this kind of design. But I also don't see much future for human space exploration without truly gigantic spaceships. I suppose the alternative is to assemble the ship in orbit, using hundreds of chemical-powered supply missions.
- NotACop182 4y agoLove to see what a failed liftoff looked like