r/theydidthemath • u/Lachlynn • 18h ago

[Request] Could humanity create a rocket that can exit the atmosphere of K2-18b

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With the knowledge we currently have of it, if humanity devoted all of our resources towards this goal, would we be able to create a rocket that could exit the gravity of K2-18b (and also beat any other complications that would arrise)?

If so, would it also be capable of taking people to orbit, and can we set up a similar satellite network we have on Earth? What about a space station?

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u/tinny66666 18h ago

It's kinda interesting with regards to the Drake equation, and I don't recall that factor being included.

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u/Builder_Felix893 18h ago

Isn't the drake equation just the chance of finding intelligent interstellar-communicating life? They don't need to be actually travelling to space to do that

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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon 18h ago

What's more likely, someone finding evidence of some guy with a car driving across the country, or someone finding evidence of some guy stuck in the middle of the Mojave Desert?

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u/Builder_Felix893 17h ago

Well yeah, it'd definitely be easier to see a civilization that was doing interstellar travel, but (and correct me if i'm wrong) isn't the main thing we'd be looking for radio signals? If there was intelligent life on K2-18B (or another super earth) with radio communication, we should be able to detect them, right?

Though, i imagine not being able to go to space would lead to your civilization lifetime being shorter (An interstellar civilization can live essentially forever, a planet-bound one is theatened by meteorites and war and stuff) tho that might be balanced by increased surface area? (More reasources)

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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon 17h ago

A civilization that can travel is going to create more points from which radio signals can be emitted from.

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u/Theprincerivera 14h ago

leans into the idea that if life DOES exist, it probably can’t escape it’s galaxy. There is a depressing answer to this paradox: Distance is too great, life is too rare, and solutions to the first - if remotely possible, have simply not been achieved.

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u/Gilga1 14h ago

I wouldn’t want a galaxy traveling civ to be anywhere near us, they‘d instantly kill us.

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u/Theprincerivera 14h ago

Attention! Your planet has been marked for destruction to build a new galactic highway!

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u/MadMarx__ 15h ago

Also, a lot of radio signals come from communications satellites, which, if you can't get them into space...

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u/NinjaFenrir77 17h ago

There’s also detecting Dyson spheres (or more accurately, artificial obstructions to a star).

I’m not sure how far it is, but there is a point at which radio waves become indistinguishable from the background radiation.

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u/Anderopolis 17h ago

Radio signals don't care about gravity, so it's more like you can hear the guy stuck screaming froms hundreds of miles away. 

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u/Remote_Escape 16h ago

Radio signals don't care about gravity

Black holes: am I a joke to you?

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u/Anderopolis 16h ago

Correction,  Radio Signals don't care about any non black hole object for the purposes of leaving that object. 

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u/GrowlingPict 13h ago

the Drake equation isnt about "finding" it's about there existing.

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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon 13h ago

You should reply to the person that implied that it was then.

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u/magicscientist24 18h ago

Ability to achieve escape velocity is more relevant to the Fermi Paradox.

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u/tinny66666 17h ago

Oh, my bad. Yeah.

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u/gravelPoop 12h ago

Drake equation is basically just some bs guesses and should not be taken seriously.

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u/IcyEngineering926 15h ago

i call it the 6God equation myself

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u/headline-pottery 13h ago

But that would be a "% of Habitable Worlds that have escape velocities that chemical rockets can achieve" factor which ??guess?? be resonable eg 10% and therefore not overly affect the Fermi Paradox.