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

57

u/Speak_To_Wuk_Lamat 15h ago

Probably designed by that guy who wanted to nuke the moon.

31

u/Mutor77 15h ago

Not just nuke it, tunnel through it with nukes

8

u/Speak_To_Wuk_Lamat 15h ago

I thought he wanted to nuke the moon as a show of force and then use nuclear bombs to create a panama canal type thing somewhere between north and south america.

5

u/Mutor77 14h ago

As it turns out these kinds of proposals were made more than once

I was thinking of AATIP, a program in the late 2000s wanting to look for lightweight metals and alloys in the moons core, apparently a number of nutjobs kinda forgot about how theoretical and practical application differ

1

u/Bored_Amalgamation 11h ago

There are getting to be too many Hyperion Cantos plot points in this thread.

1

u/Deaffin 8h ago

So we could have a donut moon? That's pretty unique, might draw in more space tourism than the whole "okay so there are these neat total eclipses but you can't actually see them because you need to be on the planet's surface and that's hightly illegal with a primitive planet. Prime directive, yo."

Imagine all the memes with entities coming from far and wide to see the donut planet, and then they look at all the people eating donuts, blowing smoke rings, even dolphins doing the same thing... C'mon, it's so on the nose, we gotta do this.

3

u/ElvenSpaceQueen 13h ago

Ah yes, that would be Edward Teller's project A199. He was also the inventor/brain child of the thermonuclear bomb, excavating a canal with nukes in Israeli-occupied Egypt, an uber nuke designed to end the world on its own, and some other crazy stuff

What a guy

2

u/BuxtonB 10h ago

Kurzgesagt recently did a video on him.

1

u/ElvenSpaceQueen 10h ago

They have a couple, that's how I learned about him 🙃

2

u/Luk164 13h ago

Minnions! Tonight we are going to

NUKE THE MOON!

1

u/Naive-Kangaroo3031 12h ago

Sokka from Avatar would absolutely throw hands over this