Slashdot Mirror
NASA Developing Nuclear Reactor For Moon and Mars
Al writes "NASA recently finished testing a miniature nuclear reactor that would provide power for an astronaut base on the Moon or Mars. The reactor combines a small fission system with a Stirling engine to make a 'safe, reliable, and efficient' way to produce electricity. The system being tested at NASA's Glenn Research Center can produce 2.3 kilowatts and could be ready for launch by 2020, NASA officials say. The reactor ought to provide much more power than solar panels but could prove controversial with the public concerned about launching a nuclear power source and placing it on the Moon or another planet."
what's the use in worrying? half a world away, people are working on tablets to drop in your city's drinking water to kill everyone you know. just relax and hope for the best. maybe we'll learn something there on the moon. hell, i heard people still read books on the moon. must be a reason to go there.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
I think you would like my favorite quote (duplicated here since most people have signatures turned off):
"Freedom in the United States is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability do stop others from doing what THEY want." - A. Anderson
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
I'm not so sure I would bother. Nuclear scales pretty well; why not just increase the size of the nuclear plant by a comparatively small amount to get those amenities?
Remember, on the Moon, "day" is 650 hours long.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Well, they can live without a mess hall. But they won't survive very long without those electricity-requiring *air pumps*. Think Total Recall style.
Oh, and I guess what makes "people's brains turn off" is that with the parts of such a reactor spread trough the colonry, you will soon have some "changes" in people there. Triple-tit-and-Kuato-twin-Total-Recall-style!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
How exactly did you hallucinate that uranium is not radioactive? Sure, it is only a weak alpha emitter. But that is still not "not at all". You are simply lying to make your point.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
True, but the problem is that solar power isn't going to do you very much good when it's in shadow for a month. There are ways around it, but it vastly increases your construction-on-the-moon costs.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
"Yeah, until the fuel runs out. "
I'd be more concerned about a radiation leak that might make outer space uninhabitable.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."