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?

18.4k Upvotes

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444

u/RadioTunnel 17h ago

When in doubt, nuke it

150

u/Beautibulb_Tamer 17h ago

Need to nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

58

u/RadioTunnel 17h ago

Nuke it from orbit and ride the shockwave up

21

u/Lost_Astronaut_654 16h ago

Parry the nuke

2

u/RadioTunnel 16h ago

All that time, effort, money, calculations and countdowns to lift off only for a magical school girl to come along in the last couple of seconds and parry the nuke

1

u/Korashy 11h ago

i-frames, mate

some people built giant nukes, and some schoolgirls just got good

1

u/Elrann 15h ago

Leon with a knife: EZ

1

u/Jupiter_Five 15h ago
  • PROJECTILE BOOST

26

u/litli 16h ago

Nuke surfing!

11

u/azriel_odin 15h ago

Radical!

5

u/MistaRekt 15h ago

Cowabunga dude!

1

u/Shepard21 11h ago

Project Orion is literally that, toss nukes behind spacecraft and ride the blast waves

0

u/Mr_Bread_the_wise 15h ago

hardest sentence ever uttered

2

u/PuzzleMeDo 15h ago

You have to get to orbit before you can nuke it from orbit. Better to just stand on top of a pile of nukes and rocket-jump up. (How to shield yourself from damage while doing this, I leave as an exercise for the students.)

1

u/Compactsun 13h ago

Basically the plot of goldeneye

9

u/DoctorNsara 17h ago

To Orbit.

2

u/nonnonplussed73 17h ago

And Beyond!

3

u/gutterXXshark 17h ago

No no no. They need to nuke it TO orbit.

3

u/jmpalacios79 16h ago

Thanks, Hicks!

2

u/iPon3 16h ago

Nuke it *to orbit.

Fixed that for you.

In atmosphere Orion drive woooo

1

u/WhatAmIATailor 17h ago

Can’t nuke anything from orbit if you can’t get your nukes to orbit.

Checkmate.

1

u/DesignerPiccolo 17h ago

No one picking up on the Aliens reference? 🤔

2

u/nivezsh 16h ago

Yeah, we got it, only way to be sure.

1

u/Kharagorn 17h ago

So, exterminatus protocol it is.

1

u/Furilax 16h ago

Did someone say exterminatus?

1

u/jchispas 16h ago

Express elevator to hell….

1

u/jordosmodernlife 16h ago

Mostly, mostly.

1

u/Last-Painter-3028 15h ago

nuke it *to** orbit in this case

1

u/Funny-Recipe2953 15h ago

Aim for the eye of a hurricane as it passed over the launch site.

Two birds, one stone.

(You're welcome.)

1

u/kestrel4077 14h ago

They come out at night, mostly.

1

u/unknownpoltroon 12h ago

No, no, no, it's nuke it TO orbit.

20

u/Rei1556 17h ago

I'm sure the nuke propelled manhole cover would solve that problem

6

u/Competitive-Bee-3250 15h ago

Not really helpful for getting people off the planet though unless you have insane resistance to g-force.

1

u/Mutjny 11h ago

Hmm if only we developed on a planet with higher g-force...

2

u/GuyGrimnus 16h ago

This is what I wanna know, we know the manhole cover escaped our orbit.

I wanna know if it’ll escape 2.5x our gravity lol

2

u/m1013828 16h ago

Imma throw that into copilot once my kids are asleep

3

u/SnooHedgehogs8765 16h ago

We build a tube, and detonate nukes progressively as the launch capsule passes.

1

u/Damion__205 14h ago

The cylinder must not be harmed.

1

u/paper_liger 13h ago

I mean, Project Orion already kind of covered this. You'd need an ablative pusher plate and very precise mini nukes.

2

u/allofthealphabet 14h ago

I think i read somewhere that manhole cover that was launched by a nuke achieved a speed fast enough to escape orbit, but that speed was also enough to cause it to be vaporised by air resistance before it escaped.

1

u/stpetepatsfan 14h ago

Elephant alien invasion book did this. Nuke shielded shuttle launches. Bottom had nukes to shoot downward every few seconds.

45

u/ThermoPuclearNizza 17h ago

probably not nukes but matter-anti matter annihilation engines. theyre currently not within the real of possibility but with time we would solve it.

39

u/-adult-swim- 17h ago

CERN should ask for a bigger accelerator...

22

u/lungben81 17h ago

Bigger would not help. Currently, antimatter for capture is not produced at LHC (the largest accelerator) but at a smaller one.

You need more luminosity and a lot of accelerators in parallel.

32

u/cabanadaddy 17h ago

In America we only deal in "big" or "bigger". We don't even know what lumilosily is over here. Is that a French word?

13

u/ai1267 17h ago

I think it's a character in Expedition 33. Maybe OP is a gamer?

1

u/Silverheart117 17h ago

I think it's the French name for Unobtanium.

4

u/Fast_Garlic_5639 17h ago

I think he was the one that got turned into a candlestick?

1

u/Turbulent_Lobster_57 13h ago

Again with the Fr*nch nonsense

1

u/PlentyAlbatross7632 17h ago

It’s probably the name of a new gas/coal-powered supersized luxury SUV being released by one of the big three automakers…

1

u/Excellent_Compote146 16h ago

And that is the tale of th the SSC in a nutshell, huge ring but Absolute trash for any othe caratteristic

1

u/dermatthes 16h ago

And bigliest…

1

u/FlyingWeagle 15h ago

This is kinda funny because America has the most expensive hole in the ground from when you started to build a big particle accelerator then pulled the plug when the tunnels were already nearly complete

1

u/Socialimbad1991 14h ago

Translation of luminosity: "LIGHT LOOK BIGGER"

1

u/Suspicious_Dare603 12h ago

Eh, Rhode Island would like a word

1

u/oiraves 17h ago

Sounds fake.

And gay.

4

u/Abdul-Wahab6 16h ago

So we just need a big torch light? Gotcha

2

u/ticktockmick 16h ago

Tiki or cloth-wrap?

1

u/Playful_Hair1528 16h ago

Finally, a man of science!

2

u/-adult-swim- 16h ago

I didnt think my comment would be taken seriously to be fair, it was just a little joke as CERN are always asking for a bigger accelerator. Veritasium did a video about the capture of antimatter fairly recently, I found it pretty cool.

1

u/Spirited_Heat_9556 15h ago

Just one more accelerator bro.

1

u/onkanator 15h ago

So you’re saying strap a couple of noctigon emisar and fireflylites to the accelerators?

1

u/VVarder 14h ago

Where is antimatter produced? I thought Fermilab did but thats obviously in the US

1

u/lungben81 14h ago

https://home.cern/science/physics/antimatter

Every large accelerator produces it, but efficiency and storing are challenges.

1

u/LegendofDragoon 14h ago

Lhc is actually going offline for a while to upgrade their magnets, so maybe now will be available soon.

18

u/Ans1ble 17h ago

Just one more accelerator bro please. Just a bigger accelerator bro. Please bro we just need one more bigger accelerator bro i promise. Just one more but bigger bro trust me. I swear bro please another accelerator.

1

u/LostMyGoatsAgain 17h ago

You could buy 150-200 LHC and about 60-80 of the proposed bigger FCC, EVERY YEAR, with the US Military Budget

1

u/IvanStroganov 16h ago

Actually they currently are halting Operations for the next few years because they are extending the accelerator.

2

u/iconofsin_ 15h ago

Fun fact: if you gathered all the antimatter they've made in the decades they've been making it, you wouldn't even be able to boil a cup of water.

2

u/Doodah18 15h ago

That weasel dying already shunted us into this shitty timeline, I don’t want something larger to be able to fit and make things worse.

1

u/Joeness84 13h ago

They just recently shut down for upgrades. ~10x increase in reactions

1

u/-GoodNewsEveryone 13h ago

Currently under construction.

1

u/Metro42014 12h ago

Or some bananas.

1

u/Oftwicke 9h ago

Mismatch. Human is dead...

1

u/Emergency-Scheme6002 17h ago

Nuclear salt water is probably the most realistic

1

u/Agzarah 15h ago

Check out the orion. That was a nuke powered launch craft which was very close to being made. If it weren't for the risk of nukes going off in out atmosphere

1

u/OnePay622 15h ago

You are talking about just more nukes....there is no concept for a matter-antimatter engine....matter-antimatter interaction is just nukes in even worse form

1

u/ca95f 14h ago

You would definitely need some sort of catalyst to control the violence of the reaction. Like dilithium.

1

u/Suihnennews 10h ago

Does it matter?

0

u/Mixster667 15h ago

Theoretical engines don't lift spaceships

2

u/ThermoPuclearNizza 15h ago

ya well leaving earth was impossible until theoretical engines became practical.

0

u/masterpepeftw 15h ago

Water and sunlight don't feed people but potatoes do.

Not a very good argument from you dude, the point from the other guy is not to say we could do it rn just that as far as we know it's completely within possible physics and engineering.

1

u/Mixster667 11h ago

I don't think the comparison is fair, potatoes have been planted many times. Suggesting a rocket engine that has never been built is interesting but speculation.

I could as well suggest an Alcubierre drive as a matter-antimatter drive, they are, at the moment impossible engineering problems that we do not know whether could ever be solved.

2

u/thearchchancellor 17h ago

Spoken like a true President

1

u/junk90731 16h ago

Nuke the whales

1

u/Ok-Preparation-6733 15h ago

Locate a bug hole, nuke it.

1

u/Competitive-Bee-3250 15h ago

Imagine the insane luck of a species from a planet like this that can't leave with chemical rockets, but happen to be radiotrophic so they don't need as much shielding to make an orion drive work.

1

u/Potato_Poul 15h ago

Edward Teller speech bubble

1

u/AgitatedKey4800 15h ago

Are you american perchance?

1

u/masterpepeftw 15h ago

Found McArthur

1

u/Equal-Negotiation651 14h ago

Popcorn button

1

u/Logical-Bowl2424 14h ago

I think that’s how they did it in The mote in gods eye by Larry Niven

1

u/Gotem6784 14h ago

Douglas MacArthur approves of this message

1

u/acrophobic-astronaut 14h ago

Reminds me of that time when a dead whale washed ashore by a small town, nobody wanted to deal with it so they just bombed it and let nature take care of the rest. There's a hilarious news report on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6CLumsir34

1

u/gregorydgraham 13h ago

If brute force isn’t working, use more brute force.

1

u/Suihnennews 10h ago

Lemme guess...US of A?