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Comment by justinwp | Hacker News Reader

> weighing nearly a trillion metric tonnes

I'm not sure what would be capable of moving that :) https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2021/01/In_perspec...

Supposedly the energy stored in the fuel of a SpaceX super heavy booster is equal to 13.3 kilotons of TNT[1]. The kinetic energy of a trillion metric tons moving at 1 meter per second is is 1/2 * 1 trillion metric tons * (1 meter per second)^2, which is 9x the energy in a Super Heavy. Assuming perfect conversion of energy (not valid, but I was having trouble doing the math) then you could get it moving with a few Super Heavies.

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/11lyo2i/superheavyst...

We’ve still got like 12,000 nukes left worldwide - this would be the perfect time to test Project Orion in atmo!

With all that water vapor that would enter the atmosphere and increase the albedo, we’d probably solve climate change for a few generations too.

> With all that water vapor that would enter the atmosphere and increase the albedo, we’d probably solve climate change for a few generations

You realize excess water vapor = rain right? I have heard people say stuff like that before but I never understood the disconnect where they think throwing water into the air will somehow not result in it coming down within days or weeks.

Water vapor = clouds.

We can just use a chain of nukes to make sure it makes it even higher beyond the troposphere.

Water vapor is an invisible gas, clouds are dust + water droplets and or ice.

Pushing water higher isn’t going to change anything here. Updrafts from major storms can dump a lot of water in the stratosphere, but it doesn’t stay there for long.

Water vapor becomes ice when you nuke it high enough into the atmosphere.

Some will but not all, more importantly sending water high up and it doesn’t stay there. The stratosphere is dry because it doesn’t retain water not because nothing is introducing water into it.

Heavier the molecule and the lower it stays. You only see oxygen and a little carbon dioxide at the base of the exosphere, it’s mostly hydrogen and helium.

Just detonate the nukes high enough to cause an atmospheric EMP that reverses the stratosphere’s polarity and attracts the ions in the water vapor. That should slow down the exowater cycle enough to cool us down a bit.

(I’ve been reading r/VXJunkies)

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