Posted by
michael
on from the burial-not-exactly-the-right-word dept.
roman_mir writes "Celestis is the name of a company that is offering space burials for some $11K USD. Isn't this nice, like there is not enough garbage in space already... So, how many of you want to be buried in space? I want to burn in the Sun (or at least the egomaniacal part of me.)"
Not if you keep making mistakes like that. Escape velocity is defined as the velocity needed to escape from a gravity well with no additional energy input. True, IF I move a meter per second radially away from the earth, and IF I continue to apply force to overcome gravity, THEN I will escape from the earth (in the limit), HOWEVER that is not "escape velocity" since I am continuing to oppose the force of gravity.
However, IF I want to take a "running start" at it, and then coast, I need to be moving at roughly 7 miles per second to have enough kinetic energy to be able to convert it to the potential energy of being "infinitely far" from the earth (escape conditions).
I did not make a mistake, although you may be misreading what I wrote (I admit it wasn't very clearly written). As I said, the energy required to achieve escape velocity is the same as the energy required to keep going 1 m/s away from the earth infinitely far (although you would have the additional kinetic energy of moving 1 m/s, but that's insignificant). The difference of putting all the energy into your initial motion, and the energy required to "fight" gravity is the same.
Slashdot Mirror
"I want to burn in the Sun (or at least the egomaniacal part of me.)"
...In about a few billion years with the rest of the earth.
But you can! For free!!
You need a FREE iPod Nano
So, how many of you want to be buried in space? I want to burn in the Sun (or at least the egomaniacal part of me.)
If you wait long enough, that is going to happen to us all anyway.
All your corpse are belong to us
Christopher Harrison
However, IF I want to take a "running start" at it, and then coast, I need to be moving at roughly 7 miles per second to have enough kinetic energy to be able to convert it to the potential energy of being "infinitely far" from the earth (escape conditions).
I did not make a mistake, although you may be misreading what I wrote (I admit it wasn't very clearly written). As I said, the energy required to achieve escape velocity is the same as the energy required to keep going 1 m/s away from the earth infinitely far (although you would have the additional kinetic energy of moving 1 m/s, but that's insignificant). The difference of putting all the energy into your initial motion, and the energy required to "fight" gravity is the same.