Pluto Probe Launches

Artem S. Tashkinov writes "The US space agency, Nasa, has successfully launched its New Horizons mission to Pluto. The $700m probe will gather information on Pluto and its moons before - it is hoped - pressing on to explore other objects in the outer Solar System. Pluto is the only remaining planet that has never been visited by a spacecraft."

Comments

Re:This happened around 2 PM EST

[pookemon]

Only 9 hours? Is that a slashdot record...?

We'll get the dupe in 12 months.... ;)

Yeah - sure

[maynard]

I would call myself recently accepting of fission power - within the last few years. But only because I believe the alternative of social collapse due to energy scarcity is worse than the potential for a nuclear accident. I still think a nuclear accident is likely and might be devastating across a fairly large population. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't. Fission seems the most optimistic answer within a generation or two, but we need a fallback. Of course, this is in addition to wind, PV/ thermal solar, geothermal, biomass, political hot air -- whatever.

Re:Yeah - sure

[The Master Control P]

Why do you believe that a nuclear accident is likely? France gets more than 3/4 of it's power from nuclear reactors, and they've never had a single accident. In the one incident the USA has had, the reactor safety mechanisms worked correctly and shut the core off before it completely melted. People who take an airline flight get exposed to more radiation than nuclear power plant workers.

In the case of Chernobyl, we learned that if you use a reactor that has no safety dome and will continue functioning in the absence of water, purposefully shut off all the safety systems and then simulate a meltdown (That is to say, commit unforgivable crimes against safety, good engineering, and common sense), bad things will happen.