... there was a fire pole from the Moon to the Earth?

Today we are going to have a look at a rather weird “What if”. If there was a giant fire pole from the Moon to the Earth, could you actually use it, and if yes how easily can you travel?

There would obviously be some problems with the pole in real life. Because of the Moon’s and the Earth’s gravity the fire pole would be torn apart. And since the Moon is rotating around the Earth the pole would break off any way. Our imaginary solution is a fire pole that is firmly connected to the Moon but doesn’t touch the Earth. This pole would always change its length according to the distance between the Moon and our planet.

If you wanted to use this fire pole you would come across a problem pretty soon. It is not possible to slide down from the moon. Instead you would have to climb the fire pole. People can climb poles actually quite fast. The participants of championships can climb at over 1m/s. And you have another big advantage at the Moon. The gravity is much weaker than on the Earth. On the other hand you would have to wear a spacesuit which will slow you down again.

But assuming you had a very good stamina, at some point you would come in the range of the Earth’s gravity, which is very good for you. Earth would now help you by pulling you down. This point is actually still pretty close to the Moon because Earth’s gravity is 6 times as big as Moon’s. From this point on you can pull yourself more easily forwards. When you get even further you can start kicking several times, you only grab the pole and throw it past you. Now you can move pretty fast.

But as you are getting faster and faster this will turn out to be a problem soon. When you start gliding down you have to make sure not to move too fast. Otherwise you will die from hitting the ground too hard. But if you take care of all these steps you might be able to use a fire pole from the Moon to the Earth.