cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/45638721
screenshot is of https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/06/science/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-lunar-flyby/717b8b89-e5fb-5159-8994-f1288c58cdf1
252,756 miles is 406,771 km, btw
this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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Anything But Metric
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Well it's straight uphill all the way, so probably pretty tiring. Imagine 10 years of stairmaster at 3 mph.
It wouldn't be strenuous for the entire 10 years, though, as the gravity would gradually decrease, then increase. By the time you reached GEO, the horizontal velocity you started with on the ground would be enough to keep you "weightless". Once you matched the moons orbital period, you'd eventually have to transition from climbing "up" towards the moon to climbing "down" towards the moon.
That assumes that you're climbing something like a space elevator that rotates with the earth. If you built a machine that hypothetically lets you climb by pushing reaction mass down in inertial space (employing a stairmaster-style motion), then you won't get the centrifugal effect.
But then when you do reach the moon's orbit, it smashes into you at several kilometers per second.
If you do the space elevator, then you actually start down-climbing immediately above the GEO level. Because the centrifugal force is stronger than earth gravity, and it pulls you farther out.
A cable that linked the earth and the moon would have to not be attached to the earth's surface. Otherwise it would wind up around the earth as the earth's faster rotation drags the earth end of the cable around.
what happens when you have to stop to poop?
Maybe try a "low residue" diet for this adventure.