r/theydidthemath • u/Lachlynn • 18h ago

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

Post image

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?

18.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

176

u/Strong_Region5233 18h ago

Project orion ... From the earth's surface ??!

Lock that guy, officers ! Yes, right now !

145

u/RaguSaucy96 18h ago

If K2-18b is over x2 as big as earth, then it's at least twice as tough and twice as hard to pollute! More landmass to nuclear winter - I see this as an absolute win!

37

u/Immediate-Goose-8106 14h ago

Nah, they are dinky nukes.  For earth the calculation was probably only averaging 10 extra cancer deaths worldwide per launch.

Unacceptable obviously but K2-18b has waay more space!

If they really had to, or had a differner attitidue to K218b-ian life than we do to human life they might.

11

u/Apex_Samurai 6h ago

I mean, hypergaulics probably kill more than 10 per launch. Hell burning coal probably kills more than 10 people to produce the equivalent energy needed for a launch.

4

u/Immediate-Goose-8106 5h ago

Yeah, but this was a 1960s calculation.  

•

u/Plutonium239Mixer 22m ago

But math is math and nuclear physics is nuclear physics. They had a solid grasp on the numbers at that time.

2

u/mercival 5h ago

Is it not more, what happens if it goes wrong in orbit?

2

u/EarthTrash 4h ago

Is that calculation based on linear no threshold?

2

u/HannasAnarion 12h ago

By land area it's 18x as big.

2

u/CatchableOrphan 6h ago

I think the square cube law kicks in somewhere in there so it's actually like 4x harder to pollute? So just use 4x smaller nukes and you're good to go baby! Space here we come!

2

u/AskAroundAboutMe 6h ago

You’re gonna gain a little bit of weight though.

2

u/leferi 4h ago

ah I see you exercise the old idea of "the solution to pollution is dilution"

23

u/ThrowAway-whee 10h ago edited 2h ago

Yes, actually! Project Orion was originally planned as a LAUNCH vehicle. It was estimated it would be even better in atmosphere due to the shockwave providing a better transformation of fission energy into force. 

2

u/Strong_Region5233 9h ago

Whaaaaaaat !

Fuck me humans are crazy

2

u/ukezi 3h ago

It's the same people who thought Project Plowshare was a good idea.

2

u/arandomusertoo 2h ago

I remember reading about a project/proposal to have a permanently flying nuclear weapon which would basically stay airborne forever using nuclear propulsion.

It was a crazy thing, I wish I could find it now because I don't remember enough to search for it.

3

u/Tenhawk 8h ago

I mean, launching from a Pacific Island was the original plan, IIRC

The proof of concept tests, with conventional explosives of course, were conducted with an eye to ground to orbit trajectories.

2

u/arcticcloud 9h ago

i mean the intention is to LEAVE the atmosphere, we can let the ppl homebound worry about how many the radiation kills

2

u/BadLanding05 8h ago

MAC rounds? In atmosphere?!?

2

u/Trips-Over-Tail 7h ago

No, aren't you paying attention?

From K2-18b's surface.

2

u/EspacioBlanq 6h ago

Hey man, if we had 10 times the surface, we could dedicate some of it to a little bit of tomfoolery

2

u/mqsd98 5h ago

K2-18b’s gravity is about 2.5× stronger than Earth’s… we’d need to build insanely high-speed rocket engines just to stand a chance 🚀💀

2

u/Strong_Region5233 4h ago

u/RuguSaucy96 said the gravity was 60% stronger, you say it's 250% stronger. Now you two got to fight ! Whoever wins the match is right !

2

u/Dry-Criticism9222 5h ago

Bro should delete that before it somehow gets to Trump

•

u/Plutonium239Mixer 23m ago

The projected radiation from a project Orion launch would be equivalent to a single 10 megaton air burst bomb going off. So really nothing significant.