4 ms·

Is it really space when it’s only 200 miles up? You can bike that far in a day if you get up early.

by viburnum 3y ago

andrewljohnson 3y ago
No one can do 200 vertical miles in a day right? Pick your slope, still not gonna happen.
- orbital-decay 3y ago
  Well, it's possible if you pick -100%, at least for those pieces of yourself and the bike that survived the reentry.
jameskilton 3y ago
Yes https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/
- idiotsecant 3y ago
  The part about the beats in the proclaimers song is startlingly good communication.
- Wowfunhappy 3y ago
  This is a really great link! > Getting to space is easy. It's not, like, something you could do in your car, but it's not a huge challenge. You could get a person to space with a small sounding rocket the size of a telephone pole. The X-15 aircraft reached space just by going fast and then steering up. > But getting to space is easy. The problem is staying there. [...] To avoid falling back into the atmosphere, you have to go sideways really, really fast. This image accompanies the above excerpt: https://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/58/orbit_x15.png https://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/58/orbit_x15.png
Denvercoder9 3y ago
Space is generally considered to start at either 100 km or 60 miles up, so 200 miles is squarely in space. Before the Space Shuttle was retired, the ISS orbited at just over 200 miles for years.
ARandomerDude 3y ago
> only 200 miles up Statements like this always cause me to reflect on the breathtaking achievements in powered flight over the past 100 years.
imtringued 3y ago
I think you forgot the part where you are supposed to go 200mph up and not sideways, but okay let's play this game and assume a 100% incline. Here you go: https://youtube.com/watch?v=n_cHSx7VM18 https://youtube.com/watch?v=n_cHSx7VM18
SonicScrub 3y ago
Unfortunately my maximum cycling speed is well short of 7-8 km/s
BobaFloutist 3y ago
There's a lot less "up" and "down" in the world than there is "around" and "across". Incredibly difficult heights to achieve are very frequently quite commonplace distances to cover. It's weird, but it's just part of living on a planet dominated by gravity.
wolf550e 3y ago
Very much yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line
ben_w 3y ago
Space[0] is easy, orbit[1] is hard. [0] The Kármán line, where aerodynamics are less important than orbital dynamics, is only 100 km up. [1] You're always falling. The trick is to go sideways so fast you keep missing the ground.

Is it really space when it’s only 200 miles up? You can bike that far in a day if you get up early.

andrewljohnson 3y ago

No one can do 200 vertical miles in a day right? Pick your slope, still not gonna happen.

orbital-decay 3y ago
Well, it's possible if you pick -100%, at least for those pieces of yourself and the bike that survived the reentry.

jameskilton 3y ago

Yes https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

idiotsecant 3y ago
The part about the beats in the proclaimers song is startlingly good communication.
Wowfunhappy 3y ago
This is a really great link! > Getting to space is easy. It's not, like, something you could do in your car, but it's not a huge challenge. You could get a person to space with a small sounding rocket the size of a telephone pole. The X-15 aircraft reached space just by going fast and then steering up. > But getting to space is easy. The problem is staying there. [...] To avoid falling back into the atmosphere, you have to go sideways really, really fast. This image accompanies the above excerpt: https://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/58/orbit_x15.png https://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/58/orbit_x15.png

Denvercoder9 3y ago

Space is generally considered to start at either 100 km or 60 miles up, so 200 miles is squarely in space. Before the Space Shuttle was retired, the ISS orbited at just over 200 miles for years.

ARandomerDude 3y ago

> only 200 miles up Statements like this always cause me to reflect on the breathtaking achievements in powered flight over the past 100 years.

imtringued 3y ago

I think you forgot the part where you are supposed to go 200mph up and not sideways, but okay let's play this game and assume a 100% incline. Here you go: https://youtube.com/watch?v=n_cHSx7VM18 https://youtube.com/watch?v=n_cHSx7VM18

SonicScrub 3y ago

Unfortunately my maximum cycling speed is well short of 7-8 km/s

BobaFloutist 3y ago

There's a lot less "up" and "down" in the world than there is "around" and "across". Incredibly difficult heights to achieve are very frequently quite commonplace distances to cover. It's weird, but it's just part of living on a planet dominated by gravity.

wolf550e 3y ago

Very much yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line

ben_w 3y ago

Space[0] is easy, orbit[1] is hard. [0] The Kármán line, where aerodynamics are less important than orbital dynamics, is only 100 km up. [1] You're always falling. The trick is to go sideways so fast you keep missing the ground.