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Originally posted by tom goose
i dont think i like the idea of a million nukes drivin around my city
it sounds like a lot of risk regardless of potential, relying on the average joe like myself to regularly maintain his nuclear car is asking alot.
Originally posted by imbalanced
We should just use giant sling shots !!!
Originally posted by porky1981
as I posted in another thread, I don't think it is wise to put a bunch of uranium/plutonium and other fission products up into space. A re-entry accident would send all of the nuclear material into the atmosphere
Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
Originally posted by porky1981
as I posted in another thread, I don't think it is wise to put a bunch of uranium/plutonium and other fission products up into space. A re-entry accident would send all of the nuclear material into the atmosphere
And as people probably replied (or at least should have) in the other thread, you're really misinformed. We regularly, and by that I mean every couple of years, launch probes that rely on RTGs, which, while not nuclear reactors, still have radioactive material on board.
Do they pose a threat if they were to fail on launch and the rocket explode or need to be detonated? Do they pose a threat if they were to fail to attain orbit and reenter the atmosphere? Not in the slightest. So why should nuclear reactors be any different?
Originally posted by porky1981
You can't really compare a probe with a large space ship powered by a 'reactor' of sorts, now can you?. So no, im not misinformed, however, you may be. Thanks.
Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
Originally posted by porky1981
You can't really compare a probe with a large space ship powered by a 'reactor' of sorts, now can you?. So no, im not misinformed, however, you may be. Thanks.
So a containment vessel still isn't a containment vessel? Go figure...
As you can see, I wasn't comparing an RTG to a reactor. Just the fact that the containment for them really wouldn't need to be all that different - just larger, if anything.
[edit on 6/22/2006 by cmdrkeenkid]
Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
So a containment vessel still isn't a containment vessel? Go figure...
Originally posted by porky1981
can't compare apples and oranges
Originally posted by enaught
Motivation being key because there are only a few nations, the US and maybe Russia and the conglomerate EU, who are at all capable of researching and developing new propulsion systems.
When it comes down to it, few of these satellites have an apogee no further than 24k miles away from earth at any given point. The rocket works just fine.
Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
Originally posted by porky1981
can't compare apples and oranges
Well, he who is so wise in the ways of wisdom... Care to explain on how the containment vessel for an RTG would differ from the containment vessel for a reactor? As I have already said, I don't believe much would need to be different aside from the size.
Originally posted by enaught
Motivation being key because there are only a few nations, the US and maybe Russia and the conglomerate EU, who are at all capable of researching and developing new propulsion systems.
JAXA is doing a lot in the way of research on ion propulsion. Just thought I would add that into the list.
When it comes down to it, few of these satellites have an apogee no further than 24k miles away from earth at any given point. The rocket works just fine.
Exactly. So you could use a normal chemical rocket to loft an interplanetary/stellar probe that utilizes nuclear or some other exoctic form of propulsion to that orbit. Then engage the other form of propulsion in space and you're off!
Originally posted by enaught
Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
So a containment vessel still isn't a containment vessel? Go figure...
No, but don't give yourself a false sense of security.
--
Rockets are convenient because they are effective, reliable and cheap compared to any idea that has been offered in contention.
The motivation for a propulsion system other than the rocket (to reach space) is deliquent. Motivation being key because there are only a few nations, the US and maybe Russia and the conglomerate EU, who are at all capable of researching and developing new propulsion systems. Beside that, rockets are used primarily to place spy satellites, weather instruments, etc into somekind of earth orbit. When it comes down to it, few of these satellites have an apogee no further than 24k miles away from earth at any given point. The rocket works just fine.
Heard the rumours about NASA civil servants?
And if you think rockets are old, we still use the wheel after all these years!
[edit on 22-6-2006 by enaught]
Originally posted by razor1000
We've been in space now for almost half a century and yet we are still using rockets WTF, when airplanes were invented they evolved overnight.