How far does “the atmosphere” go? Because technically the ISS is in the thermosphere, which is part of Earth’s atmosphene.
I’d go with the mesosphere, because that’s where meteors burn up. That’s a little below the karman line and is defined by actual qualities, instead of an arbitrary number. Regardless, both exclude the ISS. :)
No human has ever been not gravitationally bound to the earth. So really this type of showerthought seems to be too early. If we send astronauts to Mars, it will be easier to say they have been separated from Earth.
Yeah, that’s probably a better metric.
Would you count a permanent base on the moon? I think it should, since you’d be more impacted by the moon’s gravity than Earth’s, despite still being in Earth’s orbit.
The moon and everything on it is gravitationally bound to the earth. So I would not count a moon base as having escaped the Earth.
