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Will NASA Ever Recover Apollo 13's Plutonium From the Ocean

An anonymous reader writes "'Houston, we've had a problem,' said astronaut Jack Swigert on April 13, 1970. But the problem wasn't as simple as three astronauts potentially trapped in the void of space, 200,000 miles from Earth. The catastrophic risk came from the SNAP-27 radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), a small nuclear reactor that was going to be placed on the moon to power experiments, carrying Plutonium 238 in Apollo 13's lunar module. As luck would have it, NASA had experience losing RTGs – a navigation satellite failed to reach orbit in 1964 and scattered small amounts of plutonium over the Indian Ocean. The SNAP-27 had been engineered to make it back to Earth intact in such an incident. The plutonium, like the astronauts, apparently survived reentry and came to rest with what remained of the lunar module in the Tonga Trench south of Fiji, approximately 6-9 kilometers underwater (its exact location is unknown). Extensive monitoring of the atmosphere in the area showed that no radiation escaped."

17 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not if the mermen militarise the plutonium and use it against the land people.

    They're vicious SOBs down there.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  2. Re:Why would they? by Dan+East · · Score: 3, Funny

    At the rate things are going, that might be cheaper and easier than procuring it from Russia.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  3. Re:No by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Funny

    According to the Merman religion they get 17 sturgeons in the afterlife if the die whilst killing the land people.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  4. Re:No by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 3, Funny

    Plus it can be reworked into the plot of any Back To The Future reloads where Marty gets stuck in the 70's

  5. Re:No by Mitchell314 · · Score: 4, Funny

    And then it would have polluted the lunar wildlife. Should have been left in Utah, definitely much more barren there.

    --
    I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
  6. Re:No by EyelessFade · · Score: 5, Funny

    What? And let it fall in the hands of the zombie Nazis?

  7. Re:No by compro01 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't you mean Sea Kittens?

    --
    upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  8. Re:No by Tsingi · · Score: 2, Funny

    I heard that the son of Neptune would come back and bring all of the devout merpersons to the great ocean know as seaven while bringing death and destruction to all who are not devout worshipers of Neptune.

  9. Re:No by Z00L00K · · Score: 1, Funny

    In the hands of some Mormons then...

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  10. Re:Is it the right kind (isotope) of Pu? by bmo · · Score: 1, Funny

    So if Al-Qaeeda starts developing undersea technology

    What the FUCK am I reading?

    --
    BMO

  11. Re:No by Tsingi · · Score: 3, Funny

    Regardless of your complete misremembering of an article written by the highly esteemed author of an internet comic, something tells me that an RC plane motor is probably not sufficient to lift a lunar excursion module from 6km underwater.

    What if you used a counterweight?

    (its nuke-you-ler)

  12. Re:You have got to be kidding me by SnarfQuest · · Score: 4, Funny

    Radon

    Kills sea bugs... dead

    Sea kittens, you senseless clod!

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
  13. Re:No by Stele · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd be more concerned about those Japanese tentacles. Much more.

  14. Re:No by Mikkeles · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd bet on YES. That way I break even or win. Betting on NO allows only break even or lose.

    --
    Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
  15. Re:Why would they? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Someday, Uranium will be mine as well.

  16. Bond plot? by notKevinJohn · · Score: 3, Funny

    How has the recovery and development of this plutonium into a weapon NOT been featured as the plot of a James Bond movie?

  17. Re:No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    According to the Merman religion

    I believe they prefer to be referred to as The Church of Jesus Pike of Latter-day Skates.

    they get 17 sturgeons in the afterlife if the die whilst killing the land people.

    Also if they are killed by the Mafia. Either way, they sleep with the fishes.