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by JumpCrisscross
503 days ago
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> events of human history on earth have revolved in great part around settling at or controlling strategically advantaged locations, for example any coastline, or a geographic bottleneck for trade and travel Not only that, it's easier to send mass between Lagrange points than it is to send it to them from either of the orbital bodies. Getting from Earth to L1 or L2, each 1.5mm km away, takes 15 km/s, escape + 12 km/s. (You have to fight both the Sun and the Earth's gravity.) Getting from L1 to L2 takes less than 100 m/s. (L1 to L3, L4 or L5 about 1 to 2 km/s.) This confers strong defensive first-mover advantages; it's energy-wise easier to hold five than take one from the Earth. (Obviously, it's mass-wise easier from the Earth.) |
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Just curious as to why people in general don't write that as 1.5 Tm.
https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si-prefixes