Similar to the relative spacecraft and rocket sizes I linked to the other day, here’s xkcd’s version, in horse units. At first I thought he was referring to horsepower, but then I realized it was horse mass. (Click through for full sized version.)
via xkcd: Payloads.
It’s worth noting how large the Saturn V and planned SLS Block 2 rockets loom in their payload capacities. And how much heavy lift capability we gave up when we discontinued the Saturn V in the 70s.
SelfAwarePatterns 
Reblogged this on Confessions of a Geek Queen.
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I particularly enjoyed the note about space elevators. They’d make things a lot easier, if only would could figure out how to build one.
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Thanks for mentioning that. I completely missed it the first time.
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Horses, ha! Just what you’d expect from a guy who uses giraffes as a standard unit of height! 😀
I love his charts and graphs! Some of my favorites:
Radiation
Gravity Wells
Lakes and Oceans
Money
And how great was his Up Goer Five!
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I actually hadn’t seen most of those. Thank you! The gravity well and Saturn V ones are very cool!
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Munroe is, hands down, my favorite webcomic artist. (There’s a lesser-known comic that, for me, sometimes competes: Abstruse Goose, but he’s nowhere near as prolific (especially lately) — some real gems in his archive, though.) As much as I love SMBC, it’s a runner-up to those two.
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I’d agree that the average xkcd is better than the average SMBC, but every so often Weiner puts out something so profound and insightful that it blows just about anything else away.
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Totally agree!
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