About this episode
The episode explores the fictional experience of moon babies landing on Earth while discussing real scientific concepts related to space travel.
Picture this: you're a moon baby, born and raised underground on Luna, and you've just landed on Earth for the very first time. Meet the loonies, a civilization of moon-born humans who cook up rocket fuel from lunar ice and travel between worlds in spacecraft that might just include a pickleball court. Along the way we dig into the real science of rocket propulsion, tidal locking, G-forces on the human body, and why atmospheric reentry is the single hardest part of coming home. Where will the first crewed mission choose to touch down, and what will they make of a planet where the sky is blue and vast dark patches keep swallowing their probes whole? —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif —— Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact…
People in this episode
Host: Philip Shane
Guest: Gaby Paniccia
Topics covered
- space exploration
- rocket propulsion
- lunar civilization
- human body
- atmospheric reentry
Keywords
- moon babies
- rocket fuel
- tidal locking
- G-forces
- atmospheric reentry
- spacecraft
- civilization
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Harvard, Escape Pod
Places: Luna, Earth
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