/sci/ - Science & Math

The crust of Mercury is likely very thin, 500 to 600 km thick. The metallic core with a radius of 1,800 to 1,900 km makes up 75 percent of the planet's radius. The core is molten. Mercury's core has more iron than any other planet in the solar system.
The surface temp ranges from -170 C at night to 430 C during the day but the poles stay below -90 C. There should be a spot where the heating and cooling bills won’t be too high. Of course it makes the most sense to launch from the equator. A huge heat sink of some kind might help.
The atmosphere is 42% O2, 29% Na H2 22%, He 6% and 0.5% K (I can’t imagine why it doesn’t blow up at the fist spark making the hydrogen and oxygen into water)
Escape velocity
V = sqrt((2 × (6.67×10^11) × 3.3 ×10^23 kg)/2439700m)
= sqrt ( 4.4022 × 10^13 / 2439700m)
= sqrt (18044021.81)
= approx 4247.825539 m/s,
= approx 42.5 km/s.
This is a real bitch. Earths is only 11.2 km/s. I’m guessing Mercury’s density is the problem.
Since we will be launching trillions of tones into orbit we will need some kind of space elevator. Maybe a huge solenoid cannon is the answer.