Have you ever thought about what would happen if there were roads that could take you to the moon? Imagine if you drove a car at a speed of 62 miles per hour. It turns out, if this were possible, it would take you around 6 months to reach the moon.
A long time ago, a famous astronomer named Fred Hoyle came up with an idea. He said that if you drove a car upwards at a constant speed of 62 miles per hour, you could get to outer space in about an hour.
That’s because outer space starts about 62 miles above Earth’s surface. He said something funny about this idea, “Space isn’t far away at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.” He said this in a column in 1979.
Now, imagine if there were roads that went from Earth to the Moon. If you drove a car at a steady speed of 62 miles per hour, it would take you about 6 months to go from Earth to the moon.
Just to give you an idea, if you drove at 60 miles per hour, it would take you the same time it takes to go around the Earth about 10 times. The Earth’s distance around the middle is about 24,850 miles.
