Recent comments in /f/space
Israeli_pride t1_j2fausw wrote
Reply to Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
I’m such a nuclear proponent, especially in space. i immediately roll my eyes whenever i hear about solar, i always think but nuclear does it better
itsmejpt t1_j2fa24q wrote
Reply to Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
I spent way too long trying to figure out what "Israeli pens" were.
dern_the_hermit t1_j2fa17w wrote
Reply to comment by Loon013 in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
I think it would be trivial in comparison to the whole project. I mean, it's no secret that just about every aspect of a megastructure is definitionally huge.
Loon013 t1_j2f9d2t wrote
Reply to comment by dern_the_hermit in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
I agree, but that will require some more mass and energy to implement. Those requirements will be considerable on the scale of a polar solar ring.
cynical_gramps t1_j2f98nh wrote
Reply to Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
This could work in principle but it would hardly be an improvement over fission (and the math is very generous/somewhat questionable).
Triabolical_ t1_j2f8xk7 wrote
Reply to comment by Rare-Joke in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
Look at the NASA kilopower designs, and the KRUSTY testbed.
[deleted] t1_j2f8vz5 wrote
Triabolical_ t1_j2f8v86 wrote
Reply to comment by sadetheruiner in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
Fission gives free heat if you are either a) willing to build a heat-transfer system to get the heat where you want it or b) live right next to a nuclear reactor.
dern_the_hermit t1_j2f8la4 wrote
Reply to comment by Loon013 in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
True, but that phenomenon can be used to our advantage (.pdf warning) to repel dust as well.
amitym t1_j2f8i6h wrote
Reply to comment by mrod9191 in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
After 13 days you issue a press release declaring the effort a success, then start a new company... >_>
Loon013 t1_j2f81tx wrote
Reply to comment by dern_the_hermit in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
There is evidence that lunar dust may be elevated by electromagnetic forces. Differences in potential can arise between day lit and dark areas.
armymike t1_j2f6l4d wrote
Reply to Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
That sounds like a lot of panels. The zoning board will never go for it.
/s for those who don't have to hear about their local zoning boards doing everything they can to stop solar panel fields being installed
amitym t1_j2f5vsz wrote
Reply to comment by Eggplantosaur in Earth was brought to life by ancient water-rich asteroids from the outer Solar System by marketrent
"Mantle" is the inside, not the outside. I wouldn't think that needs to be explained but here we are.
sadetheruiner t1_j2f5kgf wrote
Reply to comment by seedanrun in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
That would probably be more efficient. Honestly if operations expand there’s no reason a hybrid system couldn’t be utilized, as someone else mentioned the fission gives free heat.
AmAProudIdiot t1_j2f5dbt wrote
Reply to comment by gg_account in James Webb Space Telescope meets the 7 intriguing exoplanets of TRAPPIST-1 | Space by mzpip
Eh. There are red-dwarves that aren't active, like Teegarden and that one star that barely has a magnetic field.
Nickp000g t1_j2f48j2 wrote
Reply to Want to Build Structures on the Moon? Just Blast the Regolith With Microwaves - Microwaves are useful for more than just heating up leftovers. They can also make landing pads on other worlds - Universe Today by vibrunazo
If we add more mass to the moon….how would that affect us here on earth?
Lyonore t1_j2f2rff wrote
Reply to comment by TravestyTravis in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
Nor an atmosphere, though, so a lot more meteorites to be concerned with
seedanrun t1_j2f2f99 wrote
Reply to comment by sadetheruiner in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
Also with no atmosphere your angle of incident is not important.
You could put a rotating panel on the moons north or south pole and have continuous light year round.
rocketsocks t1_j2f2ced wrote
In addition to the five spacecraft there are 4 rocket upper stages which are on escape trajectories from the solar system (Pioneer 11's upper stage is probably stuck orbiting the Sun because it would have had to have made gravity assists at both Jupiter and Saturn to escape, which is unlikely). There are also the small yo-yo de-spin weights for the New Horizons kick stage.
TravestyTravis t1_j2f2182 wrote
Reply to comment by dern_the_hermit in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
Also the moon doesn’t have wind or quakes.
rocketsocks t1_j2f1jua wrote
Reply to comment by dougola in The most distant spacecraft in the solar system — Where are they now? by jormungandrsjig
They are far too dim. Remember that light falls off with 1/r^2 distance from the Sun, while at the same time the intensity of light received at Earth falls off with 1/r^2 distance from the Earth. For objects in the outer solar system many tens of AU away from both the Earth and the Sun the result is that the distance from the Sun and the distance to the observer (which is usually near the Earth) are similar, since at such scales the Earth and the Sun are very close together. This means that brightness falls off roughly with a relationship of 1/r^4 distance from the Sun/Earth. Meaning that an object 100 AU away is not just 10,000x dimmer than 1 AU away but 100 million times dimmer.
We can just barely see giant balls of rock and ice that are hundreds of km across in the outer solar system, a tiny bit of metal just a few meters across at most is basically invisible to our optical and infrared telescopes.
AnotherQuark t1_j2fbs3n wrote
Reply to comment by gerkletoss in Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production. With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass. by Zee2A
Reasonable idea once the moon is saturated with enough humans though.