Could Aliens Build A Rocket To Escape A Super Earth? 

Another problem for re-entry is the atmosphere is going to be held tighter to the ground so the air density will rise very rapidly and I imagine it will be like hitting a wall.

Aliens from a low-mass world on their wooden rocket: "In the name of the Crown! Submit yer spices and dyes!"

>"it looks for stars passing in front of the sun" well good luck with that

*There will be some civilization out there which is half the size of earth wondering if it's possible to launch a rocket from a planet twice its size*

*I can imagine what kind of things would seem incredibly difficult to those aliens, but easy to us.* "Not long ago we managed to start construction on our first space station. After 35 launches, it is 10x5x15 meters. We're pretty proud of it since it cost a lot of money." "Also, we are just starting to begin work on interplanetary probes. So far, none of our rockets can reach escape velocity, but we're working on it." "Our smallest orbital rocket is about 150 meters tall..." *Meanwhile, there's another alien species that lives on a low-g, low atmos pressure world.* "Oh yes, by the way we are having some trouble with our space program, the amount of rockets we are launching is slowly pushing our planet around." "Multistage rockets? Doesn't that just complicate things?" "Parachutes? Oh we tried those, they only work at high velocities. It's better to just slow down with the engines."

*Humans* "Yeah, those aliens living on super-earths are trapped..." *Aliens from a low-mass world* "Yeah, those aliens living on 12,000 km wide planets are trapped..." *Aliens from a super-earth* "Just another comms satellite launching on a 5 000 ton rocket. Nothing special."

Ah, the majestic subcontinent of Florida.

They will not bother with space, until they realise they can nuke their enemies from the other side of the planet.

By my reckoning, a first stage that uses air breathing jet engines, fixed wings, and takes off from a runway or big ramp would make much more sense on a planet like this. With the huge atmospheric pressure you can get more air moving through the engine to help with combustion and you also get WAY more lift from the wings. Even with the higher drag, it would probably be much more efficient

So aliens from a larger planet would be stronger (to cope with higher gravity), but have less space travel capability, and aliens from a smaller planet would be weaker but have easy access to space? Sounds like the basis for a sci-fi novel

when he mentions the time editing and you realize that the rocket launch actually took 44 minutes to reach space.

I’ve been thinking of a science fiction story that revolves around this. It takes place on a super earth and it’s habitable moon. On both worlds there are humanoid species (thanks to panspermia and ancient civilisations) with rising civilisations. The super earth has gravity almost twice that of Earth, meaning they’re trapped there, while the moon has less than half Earth gravity so it’s super easy to get around. As a consequence, the civilisation on the planet is trapped and stagnant despite being much older.

I'd like to hear more about re-entry, and the scaling of its properties and effects in relation to the different variables of planets like super-earths. It's pretty apparent that the bigger the planet, the harder the re-entry, but you never fail to illuminate me to things I don't even know I don't know about things I frankly barely know anything about.

Whichever metric we take, earth is very lucky.

Wouldn't you imagine that such a civilization would use airplanes of some sort as their first stage?

RIP Jeb and Bob...

super-Earth aliens might talk about going to low orbit like we talk about going to another star :o.

And that is why we need to find the gravity hack console command for the universe.

They might have to skip chemical rockets and go straight for the nuclear stuff to get off the ground. Project Orion instead of Apollo :-)

I smell a business opportunity. Humanity should roam around the galaxy looking for aliens stuck on their super-Earths and sell them the technology to get them into space. Space elevators, rotating tethers, orbital rings... whatever. All technologies that they wouldn't be able to implement on their own.

The problem is, that a Super-Earth would have a less visible curvature and thus, a Super-Flat-Earth community, that would just ruin everything.

The more hard a thing is... The better the tech they will create to overcome it. Necessity is the mother of all invention

Now I wonder if there is a civilization out there on a planet with half the earths gravity thinking about how ridiculous it would be to launch rockets from a earth-sized planet.

Well, if an alien civilisation did evolve on a plant that size where their scientists managed to get into orbit, you can pretty much guarantee, they'd have to deal with their version of flat earthers. 😂 😂 😂 😂.

Besides from the interesting content, the voice of Scott Manley with the music of Universe Sandbox is soooo chilling.

Now imagine that your civilization lives inside a Super Europa. Good luck. ;)

I was about to say "Beings from a planet half the size of Earth are......" until I read some comments and realised that is what everyone else said.

My favourite Earth is that one you see from the ISS

Super-Earth or “I can’t-even-lift-my-foot-crappy-Earth” ? )))

What about balloon assisted launch? Would the higher gravity affect the density of the atmosphere at lower altitudes? Making it easier to get lift out of balloons? *fixed*

Every time I imagine I'm the only one wondering something weird, there's a video about it and it's usually Scott who made it.

Love this video, I've pondered about this before as well. Thank you for making it Scott!

I think aliens on a super Earth would be more likely to try and use nuclear propulsion in their upper stages or even try something like project Orion.

*explosion* - I'm Scott Manley, fly safe!

Great video as usual, Scott! One correction though. At 1:43 you said "stars passing in front of the sun". If that even happened to our sun, we'd be in deep trouble. Planet passing in front of a star sounds better and much less scary.

in this simulation does it take into account the fact that with a higher G environment structural design needs to compensate and therefore base mass on structure

Would aliens from a super earth even have a desire to leave? Twice as much atmosphere to look through when observing other planets/stars, maybe they don't even have a moon to be a carrot on a stick in the public's imagination. how might a species built for life at 2g survive in space or on return, bone density loss or cardiovascular muscle wasting could be fatal, a heart built to work at 2g might go overboard in micro gravity.

Ironically, your admonition to "fly safe" comes seconds after the kerbal craft is shown blowing up on reentry. Looks like you could stand to follow your own instructions.

Senseless kerbal murder!

Scott Manly - I want to say, i enjoy watching your videos! Your videos are brilliant!

Scott, on a Super Earth whose atmosphere is 14.7psi at the surface, wouldn't the Kármán line be lower since more mass would compress the atmosphere more? So instead of having to rise to 62 miles to reach space, you would only need to rise to lower height to reach space? So would you really need more fuel to reach space? This is a very interesting thought experiment, thank you. :-)

1:43 "star passing infront of the sun" yeah i guess we would be able to detect that. if we survive

You are awesome. Never stop posting videos

Manley, yer a legend mate. Happy New Year

*just burned Bob and Jeb in super earth's atmosphere* Scott: fly safe! 😂😂😂

Another interesting factor to consider would be the physical size of the alien population themselves. Double the gravity means they had to evolve a physical structure that allows them to move comfortably around their environment.

That was a really fun discussion of several interesting topics!

Thank You, definitely one of your best videos !

"It looks for stars passing in front of the sun" what?

12:18 i think you didn't mean fuel but velocity there. If it only where twice as much fuel the rocket equation wouldn't be that scary...

Thanks for all your wonderful videos, I know how much time and hard work can go into these so thank you!

I love Scott Manley! Idk why it just dawned on me to sbscribe today when I have been watching you for 2 years... Better late than never, right? Keep it up!

My gosh, I love exoplanets. Time to go play Project Discovery again...

There’s an entirely different issue here in that with twice the gravity everything built INCLUDING the rocket would have to take the additional stresses and would weight even heavier than on earth just to stand upright.

This was great, and on a topic I wish would get discussed more often whenever a new 'new Earth candidate' planet is found. Thanks for making the video, 9/10 (point lost for Kerbal butchery).

Scott, you are by far my favorite rocketman. Hat's off sir!

Interesting video. I question one statement. however, There is no direct relationship of mass and radius. The mass depends on the nature (i.e. the density) of the elements constituting the planet (as well as the radius). I think what you meant was that surface gravity (but not escape velocity) varies inversely with the square of the radius. Accordingly, it is possible in theory to have a planet that has twice the mass of Earth (and therefore a much greater escape velocity) but whose surface gravity is equal to or less than that of Earth if it is metal deficient compared to Earth but has a larger radius to accommodate the overall greater mass. A planet with twice the mass of Earth and 1.415 the radius of Earth would have a surface gravity of approximately 1g despite a much higher escape velocity. Comments?

I bet some alien civilization has already done it, perhaps in another galaxy..

I always find myself liking your videos before I watch them, Mr Manley.

As soon as I read the news article about the super earth I could not wait for your video! Bonus codyslab points

What about a spaceplane type of aircraft using as much lift as possible to get to orbit?

I can imagine our planet as a tiny dot in some aliens telescope and them saying, do you think anything would live there?

Your videos are always very educational.

What I find amazing about the kepler data is while there was many planets found it was only looking at a very tiny piece of the sky.

A civilization on a planet like this might have come up with some kind of "exotic" propulsion system out of necessity that seems totally normal to them. They would look at our rockets and be amazed how advanced they are while our jaws drop at their gravity repulser field generators and what not.

My Dad was explaining to me a sci-fi book he had heard about involving the Fermi Paradox. Basically it explained that any civilization willing to broadcast their existence to the universe had been eradicated by other civilizations.

Basically what I got out of this is that the rockets would need to be bigger, or launched in alternate methods (see: spaceplanes). Overall, it seems entirely feasible for a larger planet to get to space, eventually. In the 1800s people might have said building a Saturn V was insane, but with enough engineering and manpower, it is of course easily possible. And we are on track to build even larger rockets still! Unless the planet is many many times as large as Earth, like Jupiter size or something, I see no practical obstacle to space flight.

The linear scaling of surface gravity and radius just blew my mind. It seems so obvious looking at both the equations now but i would of never of drawn that connection.

When you talk about a possible intelligent life-form on another plane, it brings up another angle. The society on such a planet may not be fractured like humanity. It could be one big planet with sentient intelligence who can devote as many resources to a space program as needed. They may not have a monetary system, or even governance. It may not be needed. Also when you think of these societal and philosophical weights, you have to account for one more big thing. Humanity may never have been interested in going to space if not for international competition and the war machine. If an 'Alien' civilization didn't have these constructs would they even want, or need to go? It's true that ancient civilizations were fascinated by the stars and built entire cities to track or honor them. It really makes you wonder if intelligence didn't originally come from some cosmic force that we don't understand and can't measure. Or, if humanity and the intelligence on this rock didn't come here from another. I'm KilllaCookBook, Tube safe LOLZ! I love your science videos sooo much because they really challenge me to engage my mind like no text book ever could. Scott Manley for class president!

Would a super Earth have a lower Karman line due to the increased gravity?Also,The SLS is a worthless money pit and will probably never fly. Too easy and more cost effective to use companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

*Thanks Scott,* I've been wondering this question for years now :)

You went philosophical there... I like it.

Before watching the video, I will say that YES, intelligent life on a "Super-Earth", or even intelligent life on a SUN, would evolve to know how to leave their orbit, or at least go into orbit. Why? Because we use what we have available to "us" to evolve. We overcome the obstacles that we are born in to make things...things like vehicles to go into, or leave, the orbit of the world "we" live on. Too many people just think in Earth Human terms. There's a lot more than that....I would surely bet....that exists out there.

Another question: Would other civilizations have access to fuels like hydrocarbons for space travel and energy in general? I guess if there wasn't enough energy around the civilization would die off pretty early, and perhaps an intelligent civilization wouldn't even evolve if the conditions required to make hydrocarbons didn't exist. I guess this all relies on life evolving similar to how it did on Earth, especially plant life.

Nice one, Scott! ❤️

Good topic ! This factor is vital for selecting future missions to other planets 🪐

It is possible we are the first civilization that has evolved from life.

motor sports would be awsome thou on a super earth!

Another Great video, always learn something watching Scott.. But my question is.. How would someone living on a super earth would know any better? I mean if they had no idea they had a bigger planet or anything, going to orbit would just be normal for them with bigger rockets more power etc. I mean there could be someone out there explaining this to their youtube talking about a planet Earth size using more power to get to orbit. Thats what I love about the verse. Whats normal to us could be abnormal for something else.

The density of a planet matters a lot in terms of actual surface gravity.

The problem with these kind of questions is that we necessarily have to make certain assumptions which may be completely wrong. For example we're assuming that these aliens are at the same level of technological and scientific development that we are at. For all we know they could discover a super light metal or they could simply be more scientifically advanced and have figured out a better way of getting rockets off the ground than using copious amounts of fuel. I guess what I'm saying is that just because we don't have the means to do something does not mean every alien race are bound by the same shortcomings in knowledge. As for why aliens haven't popped in for a cup of tea, I think it's simply that we're very far from these possible habitable planets. They might be able to get off their planet just fine but they would be bound by the same laws of physics (as we understand it) so they wouldn't be able to travel faster than light and would thus have to invent the warp drive first. And even if they did invent the warp drive they'd have to know we exist. We only started broadcasting radio signals about a hundred years ago so it will be a long time before their equivalent of SETI discovers our little planet has a few intelligent people on it. ;)

Lol the intro music threw me for a loop. I was like "this isn't Scott?!"

I love what you do, Scott. Every video you produce is top notch. Aside from that, I wonder and I do believe that it is possible for another form of life to evolve without the need for water. We're looking for what it takes for life as we know it on Earth, however, who knows, after billions of years, life may have found a way using other elements and molecules. The ideas are endless and you sir, help us all keep an open mind.

Love how Scott Manley archives are being recommended to me now after Inspiration4… yeah, great point! The Fermi Paradox could just come down to simple physics of escaping a planet.

Imagine if another species that lives on a moon makes videos like this about regular earth sized planets (us). That would be cool

What a great video. I had no idea that this planet was discovered by transit photometry. Also RIP Jebediah.

Nuclear pulse assisted launch: “At last! A worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary!”

great video!

Fantastic video!!!!

I absolutely loved this video

The music in this is spot on. Spacey and chill, without that disney vibe. I put it on repeat when going to bed ^^

YOU SENT THEM UP KNOWING THEY WERE GOING TO DIE! Brave, noble kerbls to make such a sacrifice.

Haha love the ending of this video. RIP Jeb & Bill!

I havent seen the video, but judging from the title.... THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME TOPIC... THANK YOU

I grew up in Florida I have seen STS launches - 100 miles away. Moved out west at 27. You really see the sky in the 'no where mountains' (6,000 ft). No cloud in sight, Pitch black. Shooting stars or what I like to call 'space junk'. There went the "astronauts Space debris prevention safety guide/handbook."

interesting to note that the height of a geosynchronous orbit would depend on the size of the planet but also its rotational velocity. a super earth with a day longer than ours would make it that much more difficult

a very intriguing idea on why we may not see as many aliens as one might expect, clever

How very, very interesting. That's some serious food for thought.

Very good video you snuck some science in there LOL not just playing a game awesome

Thanks so much for this, It is a problem that has been on my mind every time these super Earths being discovered, so interesting to know at 2x Earth's gravity it is possible to launch a satellite using chemical powered rockets. Could you do an analysis for nuclear powered rockets pls.