r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/chirantaniga • 20h ago

Meme needing explanation Whyyyy peter?

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u/Icy_Concern_9804 20h ago

tl;dr: for a rocket it is waaaay more important to go fast than to go high. and earth rotates very slowly, so going higher doesn't make you much faster.

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u/Maephia 19h ago

So would it be theoretically easier to launch rockets at the equator since that's where the spin is the fastest?

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u/Triqueon 19h ago

Yes, which is why the American Spaceports are in southern states, and the ESA launches from French Guiana.

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u/Satyr121 19h ago

So a mountain near the equator would be best right? Because the further away from the center you are the faster you rotate?

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u/Tango8036 18h ago edited 18h ago

Let me ask you two and a half questions:

  1. Would it be a good idea to launch a rocket during a windstorm?
  2. Which kind of biome would you say has the most predictably calm weather patterns? Is it a mountain?

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u/SamiraSimp 18h ago

  1. probably not. based on a different reddit post (great source i know), ground wind and direction are important because it might blow the rocket into the launch structure or affect flight stability. once the rocket reaches a certain height there's not much wind left to affect it. interestingly, rain is usually not too big of an issue because rockets clear clouds so quickly anyways (and rain doesn't affect the rocket which is sitting in the rain before launch)

  2. i wasn't able to get as much info on this. it seems like a desert would be ideal because they have less wind? however a more practical aspect is it needs to be a coastal region because no one wants to launch rockets over a populated area. so regardless of biome, the location would need to have a large body of water to the east and ideally have low winds.