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xkcd #3291: Launchpad (thelemmy.club)
submitted 4 weeks ago by [B] to c/xkcd@lemmy.world
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xkcd #3291: Launchpad

Title text:

It does come at the cost of some launchpad expansions and increased fuel requirements, but that all comes out of the facility's budget.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3291/

explainxkcd for #3291

It does come at the cost of some launchpad expansions and increased fuel requirements, but that all comes out of the facility's budget.
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[–] 14 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

I still say we should mount rockets into a rollercoaster rail🎢 that way stage one can be spent on the ground doing a horizontal launch and then the rail would have to change the angle to be more horizontal

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  • [–] 19 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

    This was actually tested in 2001 and found to be effective method to launch a crew into space

    https://youtu.be/mt_kSlBBEXs?t=139

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  • [–] 6 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)
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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    Sure, it's just 2000 kilometers long. We'll just take over the northern half of Brazil to build it

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago

    You need a bit less than 1/3 of it...

    But it's supposed to be build in an ocean. Forests do not make for good logistics.

    (It's also supposed to use a series of hypersonic iron pellets running inside a tube, that will explode and endanger a hundreds of km radius if something like even an air leak appears there... So yeah, the size is the least of the issues here.)

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