Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
1–10 of 51 posts
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#2Imagine non-super earth's alien civilizations are probably writing up articles about how planets like ours are hard to escape.
You dealt the hand you're given.
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#3Read a sci-fi book recently with that being a central plot point. Reasonably advanced species unable to escape the gravity of its home world. There is also a dearth of fissile material in the solar system that prevent a "nuclear option". Book was written as a bit of homage to "The Mote in God's Eye" with wanting to leave to planet being seen as a "Crazy Eddie" idea.
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#4Bottom line: Chemical rockets are never going to take us any place interesting in the universe.
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#5I would assume that such planets have a very large surface area, larger than Earth and Mars combined? In this case, super-Earthlings have plenty of exploring to do, just in a different way from us. It can still be challenging and time consuming, for example air travel may not be practical, or may require balloons floating in denser atmosphere rather than jet engines. By the time we explored Mars and they explored their entire surface, or prospects for going further may not be so different. Either we have developed technology to travel much further, or we have to accept that that's all the planetary surface we are going to see and we better take good care of it.
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#6Bottom line: Chemical rockets are never going to take us any place interesting in the universe.
I would argue that the moon, Venus, Mars, Titan, Enceladus, and others are quite interesting :P
But I see what you're saying. Excluding our own solar system, yes, chemical rockets are super limited :)
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#7I'm curious how much harder it would be on these planets to launch 1) Sputnik like satellite 2) Hubble Space telescope
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#8Bottom line: Chemical rockets are never going to take us any place interesting in the universe.
I would argue that the moon, Venus, Mars, Titan, Enceladus, and others are quite interesting :P But I see what you're saying. Excluding our own solar system, yes, chemical rockets are super limited :)
Even within our own solar system, anywhere beyond the moon is likely to end up as a one way, dead end trip.
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#9I would assume that such planets have a very large surface area, larger than Earth and Mars combined? In this case, super-Earthlings have plenty of exploring to do, just in a different way from us. It can still be challenging and time consuming, for example air travel may not be practical, or may require balloons floating in denser atmosphere rather than jet engines. By the time we explored Mars and they explored the…
Maybe? But as they say, necessity is the mother of all invention.
Re: Super-Earths in Need for Extremly Big Rockets (2018)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would argue that the moon, Venus, Mars, Titan, Enceladus, and others are quite interesting :P But I see what you're saying. Excluding our own solar system, yes, chemical rockets are super limited :)
Even within our own solar system, anywhere beyond the moon is likely to end up as a one way, dead end trip.
Why is it so important to get back? That implies people need to go there, I think? Why?
And would it really not be possible to get to Enceladus and back (w/o people)?
The gravity there is so much less than the moon.
Or is it just the distance to and from Enceladus, and possibly nothing for a slingshot?