NASA plans to crash Galileo into Jupiter

NASA is planning on sending the plutonium power satellite Galileo into Jupiters atmosphere. The plutonium on board would be crushed causing a nuclear explosion and possibly igniting the hydrogen atmosphere on the planet into a mini star.

yowusa.com...

Hey cool,

when is the big show going to happen?

I'll keep looking out for it.

Who knows maybe it will lead to shorter winters.

I seriously doubt that satellite has enough juice in it to ignite anything.

48 pounds of high grade plutonium is very nasty stuff. If a fusion process is started it can ignite the planet into a mini star. It will happen September, 21 2003

*sigh*

This is the 3rd thread on this subject (I actually posted the first one).

First of all, its 48 pounds of *not* high grade plutonium, as RTGs DO NOT use highly fissile material. The RTG fuel is a rather diluted form of plutonium oxide, and while it is a gamma ray emmitter, and decays at a constant rate, (therefore it is an efficient radioisotope thermal source) it is NOT of fissilie fuel grade, much less weapons grade (far higher purity than fissile fuel grade) that would be needed to support a fission explosion.

Now, consider that it has been in operation for better part of a decade, constantly decaying... its fissile properties have been constantly degrading for the past decade of operation.

Also, on reentry, the RTG unit is designed to survive a rocket explosion and crash and keep the fuel core intact (in the event of an explosion and crash on launch, to prevent environmental contamination). If at some point it does crack open, it will do so non-geometrically, and therefore will spill the fuel out rather than compress it to a supercritical mass needed for a fission reaction.

Besides that, the fuel pellets are NOT arranged in the correct geometery to allow a compressional fission reaction... it is physically impossible to design a device that can act as a fission generator and simultaneously support a fission explosion, as the fuel core in a bomb must be arranged for complete global compression.

Also, does ANYONE really believe that a maxium yield of less than 1 megaton is going to ignite a gas giant???? The electrical arcs between the planet and its moons are far more energy than such an explosion would produce!

Someone is writing scifi on crack...

I agree, there is a lot of unsubstantiated BS in this article. However, the one thing that popped out at me was this.



That definitely is a VERY uncanny coincidence.

But I still stick with the concensus that it seems quite far fetch due to the "junk" plutonium that is used in the satellite.

NASA actually "planning" a crash...now that's different...usually they just happen....

I guess they felt that they needed to at least look like they had control of ONE crash

I thought this was old news? The article I originally read was dated OCT 2002. So, why are we having threads about it now??

I guess just because the date of impact is getting close...

Well they did it -

news.bbc.co.uk...

Does'nt seem any brighter tonight (in fact its pretty dark out my window right now) - so DR as you stated it wasnt that sort of plan.

What I feel doesn't make sense is, they claimed to be so worried that the Galileo could crash into one of the moons around Jupiter and contaminate it with any microbes on board, so there answer rather then send it into deep space was to crash it into "Jupiter" herself!!.

Now, I 'm not saying there is life on Jupiter itself, but I'm also not saying there is no way there can be. I don't think we have enough information to make that call as of yet, hell were still finding ""life"" in places on earth we would have thought "No Way"

This whole thing just proves one more time that we never get the truth from NASA . Yes, crashing it into Jupiter to try and "gain" more information with the last drop of the probes power was a good plan, but why try and feed us a bunch of bull poop also. And if there was even the smallest chance that a fusion process could have taken place on Jupiter , why on Gods green earth would you do something like that. We have no
right to take chances like that with other planets we know very little about. We do NOT know what is deep inside Jupiter and can only speculate, but the FACT is, we don't really know.

"NASA opted to crash the 3,000-pound spacecraft into Jupiter to eliminate the possibility it could smack into Europa, one of Jupiter's watery moons, and contaminate it with any microbes on board. "

Got a few questions?, did it burn up or was it just crushed by the pressure or both? What about the "48 pounds" of high grade plutonium, did it just burn up also?. Hay and well were at it, what's with that "LARGE" spot anyway, is there a chance "heat" is involved? Once we get through the layers and layers of gas what's really in the middle?,

O-and, you say we have found all sorts of "Living" creatures 4 miles below the Earths oceans in total darkness under so much presure us humans would be crushed and some of that life feeds on meals that are so toxic, yet we can be so sure Jupiter in all it's vastness holds no sort of life, not even microbes.

Well maybe I stand alone here but, that's a bunch of POOP.

It's the lies I hate the most!!

Yes, they did it, we're still here, but I have to wonder... if the moons and planets are lifeless, then why is NASA worried about contamination? What could possibly be there to contaminate?
In regards to Jupiter blowing up... it'd be more interesting if Gal. converted the planet into a sun, re: 2010. Kiss the ozone good bye!

Kinda makes you wonder that there might be something on Europa...

reply to post by Gammaray

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this hasnt happend yet, its 2008! ... but i do hope it will, as well i would love a shorter winter also

Holy Necro-thread, Batman. This is from five years ago!

Ah 2003, when the war was in its infant stages. When America's corruption and lies were just starting to reach the light of day. Simpler times...

On a side note, wheres my damn second sun I've always wanted to see a dual sunset like on Star Wars