To quote Mark Watney in The Martian: What would an Apollo astronaut do? He'd drink three whiskey sours, drive his Corvette to the launchpad, then fly to the moon in a command module smaller than my Rover. Man those guys were cool. Launching off our happy humble little planet is something reserved for bad-asses only. First off, theres the thousands of gallons of explosives being ignited within a few seconds. But not only that, theres the sheer speed required to launch from our planet. Earths exit velocity is a spine crushing 6.96 miles per second (11.2 km). You read that right; per second. Astronauts also expect around 3 g's of force, making your few extra pounds still hanging on from Christmas weigh triple the amount. Why Is This Bad News? Space-person steps into metal box with a couple of his or her equally ballsy mates. Space-person takes a seat on top of a few hundred thousand gallons of explosive and makes themselves comfortable. Space-person is then hurtled at almost 7 miles a second off planet Earth, with fingers crossed that the engineers got good grades at school and didnt forget to carry the one in some of their calculations. Provided adequate training, the gs wont kill the astronaut. Nor will the noise, albeit it probably wouldnt be music to their ears. However, 1986s challenger disaster and the subsequent deaths of all 7 crew-members aboard provides a haunting analogue of what could happen when we attempt to exit the surly bonds of Earth. As good as our propulsion technology gets its still essentially a controlled, prolonged explosion. An OH&S nightmare.
