Rapper B.o.B has been pretty outspoken on Twitter in his belief that Earth is flat - so much so that he even got into a Twitter/rap battle with astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson about it last year.
But he's now taking things to the next level, setting up a GoFundMe page asking people to donate money towards launching "one, if not multiple" satellites, so that he can see Earth's shape for himself.
The campaign is called "Show B.o.B the curve" (no, we're not going to link to it), and at the time of publishing it's raised US$2,136 out of its US$1 million goal - including a starter donation from the rapper himself.
"What's up guys! Help support B.o.B purchase and launch one, if not multiple, satellites into space. He's donated 1k to the cause to get it going, and will be keeping you updated with step-by-step documentation of the process!" the description of the GoFundMe campaign explains. "Help B.o.B find the curve!"
The campaign has already attracted a number of supportive comments on the crowdfunding platform, such as this one from David Good: "I think this is a great idea. Someone needs to scientifically prove the Earth may be flat. Wouldn't all of you naysayers be surprised if it is."
Let's ignore for a minute the technical issues of exactly how B.o.B would go about launching these proposed satellites (they don't call it rocket science for nothing).
While it's nice that the rapper wants to test out his flat-Earth hypothesis with experimentation, the problem here is that someone has already scientifically shown the Earth is a globe.
Dear @bobatl, as an astrophysicist I don’t rap, but I know people who do. This one has my back: https://t.co/BbMi4tzHLz— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 26, 2016
In fact, multiple scientists have, across countless observations and experiments.
B.o.B has tweeted a lot about his hypothesis, but the crux of his flat-Earth argument stems from the idea that he doesn't understand why Earth's curvature isn't more visible from the surface - for example, why do two cities 16 miles (25.7 km) apart appear to be at the same level?
The cities in the background are approx. 16miles apart... where is the curve ? please explain this pic.twitter.com/YCJVBdOWX7— B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016
The explanation for that is that Earth is really, really big, and its curvature is tricky to detect for us tiny humans on ground level.
But we do already have plenty of photos of it from space, like the famous and breathtaking Blue Marble photo, taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17. Damn, son, look at those curves.
Also, a flat Earth just wouldn't be possible according to the rules of physics.
"Such a planet shape would be impossible," as Michael from Vsauce explained backin 2014. "Anything as massive as the Earth shaped like a flat disc would, under its own gravity, naturally collapse back into a ball."
You can see what Earth would look like if it was flat in his video on the subject:
And if you're still not convinced, here are some experiments you can try for yourself. Let's just say, they're a hell of a lot cheaper than launching more satellites into space...