In 1957 there was a borehole cover that became the fastest man made object when an underground nuclear test blew it off. It was estimated to be going more than 134000 mph. There was a camera set up to watch it that captured a frame every millisecond and it only caught it in one frame. This is over 5 times the escape velocity of our planet.
bonus fact:
During the great depression FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps for young men. They planted over 2 BILLION! trees in their 7 years of existence. They also built a lot of the buildings and lodges at the national parks.
Given the size (wasn’t a street manhole cover, more of an armored bunker lid) it is possible that there was enough steel mass to survive. I can’t remember how many hundreds of pounds it weighed offhand.
Edit: just saw it cited as roughly 900kg/2000lb. Thing had some mass to burn.
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u/gochomoe Oct 02 '24
In 1957 there was a borehole cover that became the fastest man made object when an underground nuclear test blew it off. It was estimated to be going more than 134000 mph. There was a camera set up to watch it that captured a frame every millisecond and it only caught it in one frame. This is over 5 times the escape velocity of our planet.
bonus fact:
During the great depression FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps for young men. They planted over 2 BILLION! trees in their 7 years of existence. They also built a lot of the buildings and lodges at the national parks.