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Nuclear Rockets Moving Along
AKAImBatman writes "Bruce Behrhorst of NuclearSpace.com recently stumbled across a new engine from everyone's favorite Jet Engine maker, Pratt & Whitney. Unlike P&W's previous engines, however, this engine is not a jet, and is powered by Nuclear Fission.
It seems that P&W has responded to the need for Mars transportation by inventing the first commercially viable nuclear thermal rocket. They have heavily improved upon the NERVA NRX design from the 60's, and have even solved the graphite ablation problem! With this new engine, it seems that an inexpensive trip to Mars is now firmly within our grasp. Will we rise to the challenge?"
Its a bird, NO its a plane, No!! It is a mini-hindenberg!
Ambient [Servlet Based Webapp Engine]
I sent this to their webmaster:
l orer/internetexplorer.aspx?pid=internetexplorer
I find it somewhat humorous that on this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/internetexp
the photo you use is that of a man, clearly fondling his male genetalia (aka 'junk') liberally while thinking of Macintosh and Apple Computer. While I don't want to get into a pissing contest about which OS is teh ghey, it's mildly humorous to find a ghey Mac user being used to advertise Microsoft's straightness, even if it is subtle.
Respectfully,
Andy Ringsmuth
I'll try and keep an eye on it and see if they decide to change the photo.....
Ok, I realize this isn't quite the same thing...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
As if what the public wants had anything to do with it. If this technology is useful, the military will grab it for themselves first and foremost - just look at nuclear submarines - and that is why it won't get anywhere near benefitting scientific or public interests.
Many Americans live under the misconception that they live in a democracy. The truth is that the American form of government is more similar to the Roman republic: 'democracy' where the only ones with a vote were the classes at the very top, and where the only people that could be elected were from those classes.
Oh yes, there's the 'American Dream (TM)': that anybody can work his way up from the bottom to the top, but how often does that happen? (Note: I didn't ask whether it is possible to find an example or two, but how many, in % of the American population). This form of government has always decayed into feudalism over time.
'Nukular'... get it reite.
Im not here now... Im out KILLING pepperoni
ahem, it's pronounced "Nu-Clure". How do these guys expect to get to Mars when they can't even pronounce the word right?
Repant. Thy end is sheer.
That may be true, but in his first four years, Bush has eviscerated the EPA. Give him another four, and he'll probably have completely dismantled it. We already have the "clean air" act legalizing more air pollution. I don't want to see his "clean water" act - it'll probably call for a 95% pollution-free standard for rivers, which would sound good while allowing businesses to dump raw pollution until 5% of the flow was pure chemicals/sewage.
Yeah, yeah, troll. Go ahead, knock yourself out, my karma can take it.
It will however be the scapegoat for any little problem that may arise.
And take over Bush's job? Not as long as there are Euro-peons around.
to keep the comman man in government.
the nuclear wiz kids brought the earth to within a few pissed-off people's button pushing fingers from annihilating all life as we know it.
hiroshima and nagasaki proved that some scientists such as yourself have little morality. yes, many peopel died in tokyo firebombing, but i will assure you that slowly dying of cancer for years is much worse than burning to death in a night. especially cruel c onsidering how many scientists just wanted to do it in order to see what would happen, as preparation for soviet-us war.
nuclear accidents have claimed thousands of lives.
we have to have the common man protecting civilization from nutballs like you.
most scientists involved in building nukes
agree with that. albert einstein, robert oppenheimer, edward teller, whatever their political persuasion they understand the importance of civilian control of the military and civilian oversight of the , as eisenhower said, 'scientific-technological elite'.
people like you are the problem, not 'the common man', without whom we would not even be sitting her arguing about this because there would have been World War III.
I hate to puncture all your Mars Mission fantasies, but I should point out one little thing to all you red, white, and bluers...
Your country is broke. Flat out busted, no money... Living on global welfare.
Trillions of dollars in debt with no real potential of every paying it off.
A third of your tax revenues goes just to pay the interest on the massive debt.
And....
Your country is addicted to war. You can't go ten years without sneaking off to some worthless third-world shithole to blow things up and kill thousands of people because they were just hanging around. You are a psychopathic people and you have been ever since you murdered most the natives originally in your land.
We had hope that you would get some kind of treatment for the national mental disorder. But it doesn't look like that will happen. We are not sure how long we can avoid bringing this problem of yours out into the open. We're not sure what to do about it either. Since you're violent and crazy it's usually best to pretend that you don't have a problem.
And...
Your political system is frozen in absolute corruption and you no longer have the ability to make the changes that you need to do to regain your health. By the way, this absolute corruption of your political system have led to select leaders that are certifiably insane. But they look good so we don't say much about it.
Therefore....
We caution you against to caught up into these Mars Mission fantasies. You run the risk of pissing off the people who are picking up the tab for your illusions and games. They might pull the plug on your reality-distortion machine. They might even cut off your medication.
Things could get ugly. You're nowhere as strong as you think you are. And your people are a lot dumber than they used to be.
Best just to let things continue as they are.