# What is 1) the most massive and 2) largest \[dimens.\] object ever moved by man? (Rocket, iceberg...) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724 "2019-07-27T18:51:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/21 "2019-07-28T12:13:39Z")
For “largest”, do you want just one dimension (i.e., greatest length), or three (greatest volume)? I’d expect the longest object ever moved a practical distance by humans, for purposes of moving that object, would be a train. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/22 "2019-07-28T12:54:51Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > The closest it’s come to the sun so far is 24.4 million km. I’m not sure this is fair, unless we’re going to count every spacecraft that has ever left the Earth’s sphere of influence, all of which would have had some kind of effect on the sun’s position, even if inappreciable. As soon as someone mentioned gravity assist, we’ve been in the regime of “some kind of effect, even if inappreciable.” Anyway, the _Ulysses_ flyby of Jupiter was at a distance of [6.3 Jovian radii](https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/ulysses/jupiter-flyby). Parker Solar Probe has gone to within 35 solar radii of the Sun already, and will eventually get to 6.9 solar radii. I could also point out that I once pointed a flashlight at the Sun, which means I moved the Sun via photon pressure. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/23 "2019-07-28T13:04:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For “largest”, do you want just one dimension (i.e., greatest length), or three (greatest volume)? I’d expect the longest object ever moved a practical distance by humans, for purposes of moving that object, would be a train. How about an [aerial tramway (or ropeway)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsj%C3%B6_ropeway)? That’s basically a series of gondolas hanging from a cable. The whole cable moves - 96km of it in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/24 "2019-07-28T13:47:14Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > I could also point out that I once pointed a flashlight at the Sun, which means I moved the Sun via photon pressure. :eek::eek: **Leo Bloom** , for the love of god, please limit the definition of _moved_ to mean “more than 12 inches”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/25 "2019-07-28T15:18:40Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > The closest it’s come to the sun so far is 24.4 million km. I’m not sure this is fair… I think we’ve left “fair” off OP+1… Which is just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/26 "2019-07-28T15:52:22Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > How about an [aerial tramway (or ropeway)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsj%C3%B6_ropeway)? That’s basically a series of gondolas hanging from a cable. The whole cable moves - 96km of it in this case. Also cool. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/27 "2019-07-28T23:23:50Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > How about an [aerial tramway (or ropeway)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsj%C3%B6_ropeway)? That’s basically a series of gondolas hanging from a cable. The whole cable moves - 96km of it in this case. More to the initial idea, of movement not already localized: the line/wire of a [wire guided missile](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire-guided_missile) can unspool some 4 km. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/28 "2019-07-29T00:11:55Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > The closest it’s come to the sun so far is 24.4 million km. I’m not sure this is fair, unless we’re going to count every spacecraft that has ever left the Earth’s sphere of influence, all of which would have had some kind of effect on the sun’s position, even if inappreciable. If gravity can smoothly trail off to an infinitely small value no matter how far away you go, rather than going under some sort of resolution minimum and zeroing out completely at some point, then all matter within range of Earth to have experienced any gravitational effects since the “first” human, would be in the running. The first human made some choice between going left or going right. That choice changed the gravitational pull that her own mass had on the rest of the universe. That choice has been radiating out at C since that moment, minimally changing the trajectory of everything within 2 million to 300,000 light years, depending on what you consider the start of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/29 "2019-07-29T03:58:22Z")
A debatable answer for longest: The first cables laid down for trans-oceanic communications. Those are thousands of kilometers, and all of the cable had to move to be put into place… but it wasn’t all moving at once, and the parts which were moving were mostly the parts that were still on the relatively compact spool. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/30 "2019-07-29T11:29:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A debatable answer for longest: The first cables laid down for trans-oceanic communications. Those are thousands of kilometers, and all of the cable had to move to be put into place… but it wasn’t all moving at once, and the parts which were moving were mostly the parts that were still on the relatively compact spool. For a cable that moved all at once, how about the tether from STS-75? [STS-75 - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-75) They got almost 20 km of line out before the tether melted. Per this reference, the world’s longest, single-belt conveyor belt is about 11 miles long, and is in both India and Bangladesh. [https://www.mcshanemetalproducts.com/blog-post/conveyor-belt-world-record-holders/](https://www.mcshanemetalproducts.com/blog-post/conveyor-belt-world-record-holders/) (Cue airplane jokes.) ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/31 "2019-07-29T22:15:23Z")
If icebergs count, what about rivers? Build a dam somewhere, and suddenly you’re moving decades of accumulated rainfall. The Chinese [built a diversion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South%E2%80%93North_Water_Transfer_Project) 700 miles long, moving 45 billion cubic meters of water a year, about equal to 1% of the Mississippi’s flow every year. And then I guess you can start thinking about climate change and water transpiration altered by greenhouse gas emissions. Unintentional geoengineering accidentally moving deserts, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/32 "2019-07-29T22:28:34Z")
Since you bring up dams, the water behind them has changed the rotation of the Earth. Do astronomical answers count if they have been measured? No one’s measured the changes to Jupiter’s and the Sun’s movements that are due to humans, but they have this one. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/33 "2019-07-30T04:01:51Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Darren, I think you have a winner for both questions. The OP doesn’t seem to care how far the objects have been moved, just that humans have moved them. There’ve been at least 7 space probes that have done graviational slingshots at Jupiter, possibly more. Each one has changed Jupiter’s orbit by some very small amount. > > Until someone figures out how to do a slingshot maneuver at the Sun, that answer is going to stand. If you really want to cheat the premise but be technically correct, the first time a human moved has affected the movement of all mass within a sphere with radius c \* (time between then and now). ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/34 "2019-07-30T06:06:52Z")
And even without getting into astrological phenomena, so much of this depends on where you set the boundaries of an individual “thing”. Is an interstate road network a “thing”? 4 million miles of roads took a lot of moving of parts to create one massive, interconnected “object”. Even Route 66 by itself is massive. Likewise, the component electronics and cables that make up the Internet could be a “thing” – it’s all one thing, not entirely dissimilar from the circulatory system of an animal, and took very deliberate human effort to create. The electrons it pushes around, though, measure a measly 50 grams or so. Do geological phenomena count? Fracking causes earthquakes, literally “moving” the earth… not a lot, but possibly more than the “12 inches” test above. We’re likewise moving the global jet stream via global warming. What about the Panama Canal, moving entire oceans? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/35 "2019-07-30T06:14:47Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > What about the Panama Canal, moving entire oceans? The Panama Canal does not move any ocean. Not even a little bit. ---
**Author:** ![Rayks\_Marcial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@Rayks\_Marcial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayks_Marcial)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/36 "2019-07-30T07:47:19Z")
I submit that seismic shock waves traveling through or around the earth constitute a movement. Therefore, any nuclear device strong enough to transmit shockwaves detectable on the other side would be it. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/37 "2019-07-30T11:33:25Z")
The Great Pyramid of Giza has an estimated mass of 5.9 million metric tonnes. While do doubt not all of its pieces were moving at once one could speculate that quite a few pieces were being shipped, moved on site and put into place at once. The max. mass being moved at once might be the record for most massive amount being moved by man in one project in a literal sense. Without aid of motors, rockets, explosives, etc. Nosing around I see various guesses including about 90 tonnes of stone being put in place per hour. Maybe something on the scale of 1000 tonnes in motion at once? But that seems high even with a low estimate of 10 years to build. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/38 "2019-07-30T12:42:05Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > The closest it’s come to the sun so far is 24.4 million km. I’m not sure this is fair, unless we’re going to count every spacecraft that has ever left the Earth’s sphere of influence, all of which would have had some kind of effect on the sun’s position, even if inappreciable. In that case we could say the Milky Way galaxy or even the local group. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724/39 "2019-07-30T15:07:00Z")
> [@joema](#): > > The world’s heaviest freight train masses about 100,000 tons total, however this is much less than the worlds heaviest oil tanker which massed about 646,000 long tons (656,000 metric tons): [Seawise Giant - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawise_Giant) > > The heaviest floating liquified natural gas platform is also about 600,000 tons, but I’m not sure that counts as a moving object unless it is towed when at full displacement. It is probably towed or steered at lighter weight: [Prelude FLNG - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude_FLNG) > > On this scale the 3,100 ton Saturn V is positively tiny. Before I read through this thread, I thought the [Chernobyl New Safe Confinement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_New_Safe_Confinement) would be a contender at 31,000 tons. But that’s only a mere 10 Saturn Vs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-1-the-most-massive-and-2-largest-dimens-object-ever-moved-by-man-rocket-iceberg/837724.md?page=1)