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"Super-Earth" planets are giant-size versions of Earth, and some research has suggested that they're more likely to be habitable than Earth-size worlds. But a new study reveals how difficult it would be for any aliens on these exoplanets to explore space.
To launch the equivalent of an Apollo moon mission, a rocket on a super-Earth would need to have a mass of about 440,000 tons (400,000 metric tons), due to fuel requirements, the study said. That's on the order of the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
"On more-massive planets, spaceflight would be exponentially more expensive," said study author Michael Hippke, an independent researcher affiliated with the Sonneberg Observatory in Germany. "Such civilizations would not have satellite TV, a moon mission or a Hubble Space Telescope."
https://www.space.com/40375-super-earth-exoplanets-hard-aliens-launch.html
[Also Covered By]: GIZMODO
[Paper]: Spaceflight from Super-Earths is difficult
[Related]: 10 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday April 24 2018, @10:21PM (5 children)
You (and I) would hope so, but I think that marketing, advertising, lawyers, national defense forces, etc. are just as much a sign of an advanced society as particle accelerators, telescopes, and entertainment. If you're just scraping by, you can't afford all that crap. I would wish that we could focus our efforts in such a way that marketing, advertising and lawyers were mostly unneeded and unwanted, but we're still all going in too many different directions at once; which is healthy, from a diversity perspective, but disappointing from the perspective of what we could accomplish if we would all just agree to do it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 25 2018, @05:56PM (4 children)
Think marketing / advertising versus search.
Does not scale: every single vendor in the world with a product to sell gets to put an ad in front of YOUR eyes. More than once. (Oh, and gets to call you during dinner time. And gets to erect a billboard on every road. Etc.)
Does scale: when you want something, you search for it. Results include reviews, comparisons, vendor websites, etc.
I think an advanced civilization would not need so much marketing / advertising as we have today. When I suddenly realize that I need house siding, I can find it and who sells it.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 25 2018, @06:27PM (3 children)
Some Sci-Fi flop of a movie I watched had a "aliens take over all the humans" basis, after they had control they kept all the stores, etc., but they were just marked as "Store" and people just walked in and took plain brown wrapper with simple label products as they needed them from the shelves, no payments.
Makes sense, not sure that people are wired to ever be able to work that way.
The innundation of crap that _still_ arrives at my mailbox every day is unbelievable... I'm pretty sure that more is spent on the paper that reaches us every year than we spend on products advertised in that paper, certainly more than we were influenced to buy by that paper, since almost all of it hits the trash can as soon as we're sure that nothing important got buried inside.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:54PM (2 children)
People could probably deal with not paying. Taking products that are wrapped in plain brown paper.
People will still have preferences. But probably not Brand preferences.
Do you want the Cherry Flavor or Orange Flavored . . . Brawndo! The Thirst Mutilator! It's Got Electrolytes. (Or without electrolytes)
Do you want the restroom tissue with Ronald Rump's face, or Killary Flinton's face?
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 25 2018, @09:37PM (1 child)
Funny you should mention this - I saw a Trump-Pence logo bumper sticker today and had the very same thought.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 27 2018, @06:47PM
I was referring to two hypothetical people. Not actual people. :-)
yeah, right
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