I actually wonder what's the biggest (rocky) planet that is actually possible to launch a chemical rocket from. At some point you just can't get enough thrust to weight, right? They'd have to resort to exotic stuff like nuclear fission engines.

[–] min_fapper@iusearchlinux.fyi 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sounds like a question to email Randall Monroe about.

[–] Sierra_Is_Bee@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not an engineer or anything, but perhaps you could get a space elevator high enough to reach escape velocity more easily. Then again, it would have to be very tall I'm sure... Never mind probably not feasible.

[–] zhunk@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For a geostationary orbit, which is where the center of mass of a space elevator would be:

h = ³√ G * m * T² / ( 4 * π² ) - r

h: orbit height (m)
G: gravitational constant
m: mass of celestial body (kg)
T: period of rotation (s)
r: radius of celestial body (m)

So, if the mass goes way up, the height of the orbit will, too, unless something crazy happens like the planet spinning super fast.

[–] Idrunkenlysignedup@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

I'm not a smart person, but my calculator says that a 200lb person would weigh 4 tons so I'm not totally sure there could even be multicellular life on that planet. Plus any atmosphere would probably be quite thicc

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