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[Rakonas]

DF proves that we don't need competent governments to have megaprojects.

DF really proves that megaprojects require semi-crazy mostly benevolent dictators who are obeyed by their subordinates. Otherwise the subordinates complain about the whole thing being pointless or that the leader is just making up for something by building an unnecessary megaproject.
Personally I think we should do what the martians did and turn our planet into a giant spaceship.

[Vanigo]

How would you keep the payload from crashing into the walls of the tunnel, if the tunnel's curved? I guess the electromagnets could do it, if they were absurdly powerful, but if they're strong enough for that they're plenty strong enough to just dig a deep shaft pointing straight up and launch that way. Plus, that way you don't have to figure out how to build a tunnel through magma. You would still have to figure out how to stop air resistance from shredding/incinerating anything you launched, though.

[Euld]

*snip*

Dang o_o  Wouldn't the uh... railgun part have to be in an airtight vacuum tube, because of the friction that comes from air itself?  You'd get more speed and less chance of incinerating yourself before liftoff :3

[Azzuro]

Why are we discussing how to drill huge holes through the Earth, anyway? Given the strength of the Earth's gravitational field versus the Moon's, it'll be far more effective to build it on the Moon instead. Also, the Earth is currently our only source of agriculture and resources at the moment, so it probably wouldn't be wise to harm it too much.

Anyway, regarding Itnetlolor's idea of attaching rotational boosters to the Earth to counteract the opposing force that the railgun generates; wouldn't it make more sense to use the fuel for those boosters for plain old chemical rockets instead? That wouldn't require a huge amount of manpower and resources to construct a railgun in the first place.

Regarding your original idea: It's cool to think about, but also really impractical. Even the entire human race would take centuries just to excavate the tunnel, and there's the problem of the magma that's in the way for most of the tunnel. While in the tunnel itself, a potential payload would burn up due to air resistance about a quarter of the way through, if it wasn't already melted by the intense temperature. Also, where were you get the truly enormous amounts of energy needed to power the electromagnets for the tunnel? Also, I doubt that the short length of the muzzle (as compared to the tunnel) would be sufficient to significantly change the trajectory of the spacecraft launching. Finally, once the tunnel was dug, where would we store all the displaced earth?

*snip*

Dang o_o  Wouldn't the uh... railgun part have to be in an airtight vacuum tube, because of the friction that comes from air itself?  You'd get more speed and less chance of incinerating yourself before liftoff :3

Ninjaedit: Keeping the entire tunnel an airtight vacuum for its length would necessitate either building huge gates at each end (which would be useless the instant they were opened) or building a wall that literally pokes out of the atmosphere.

[Vanigo]

Finally, once the tunnel was dug, where would we store all the displaced earth?

Oh, that part's easy. You use it to build the muzzle mountain.

[Armok]

we obviously have to do http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_husbandry

Edit: Thermal-driven  outflow: "The sun is not warm enough; we have to shot it with lazors until it explodes."

[MaximumZero]

DF proves that we don't need competent governments to have megaprojects.

DF really proves that megaprojects require semi-crazy mostly benevolent dictators who are obeyed by their subordinates. Otherwise the subordinates complain about the whole thing being pointless or that the leader is just making up for something by building an unnecessary megaproject.
Personally I think we should do what the martians did and turn our planet into a giant spaceship.

"But...why?"
"Because it's cool..."

[MetalSlimeHunt]

"But...why?"
"Because it's cool..."

I'll have you know that was the one and only real justification for going to the moon, and we all goddamn well know it.

[DJ]

We should build a stairway to low orbit.

[MaximumZero]

"But...why?"
"Because it's cool..."

I'll have you know that was the one and only real justification for going to the moon, and we all goddamn well know it.

I was actually finishing Muz's reference. But yeah, we should do more stuff "because it's really freakin' cool."

[ECrownofFire]

You know, it would actually be easier to just dig straight through the moon's core. Also, wouldn't gravity pull the payload towards the larger section?

Anyway, could you manipulate solar wind somehow? Let's take the idea of the mass driver through the planet, and make it use solar wind as well. Looking at the Wikipedia page for Magnetopause and Magnetosphere, it looks like it you manipulated the magnetosphere of the Earth (or more likely Moon) enough, you could force the solar wind to go straight through the core if you dug it all out. I have no idea what use harnessing solar wind would be, but it'd be really cool. Maybe you could convert it into electricity? In fact, you could probably redirect that stuff towards the Earth, and mess with electronics.

[nbonaparte]

Electromagnetic accelerators are complicated. Detonate a huge nuke in the tube to launch the thing.

[sonerohi]

Pave the oceans with silver.

[Beeskee]

I worked out this chart when I was bored, as a set of personal goals for myself, and the difficulty in accomplishing them.


Very Easy: Fix computers. Yes, I occasionally descend from my ivory tower on Mount Cerebrum to grace lowly mortals with my presence, and fix their virus infested pieces of... yeah.
Easy: Uplift the human race to a type one civilization.
Medium: Uplift the human race to a type two civilization; Bonus: and create an artificial afterlife.
Hard: Uplift the human race to a type three civilization; Bonus: and find a way to survive the end of the universe.

Of course, I had to add "Very Hard: Master Dwarf Fortress" to the list after finding it.


I made an evil version of the list too. For global security issues it remains unpublished.

[MaximumZero]

Bay12 really needs to take over the world. So many masterminds on one forum...