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Author Topic: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars  (Read 7203 times)

AJ Dual

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #25 on: March 01, 2010, 10:15:28 AM »
Quote from: lee n. field on March 01, 2010, 09:01:05 AM
Except that would be "noooculer", and we can't have that.   :facepalm:

Despite the protesters, it's not a huge issue.

New Horizons, Cassini, and Galileo and other RTG equipped probes were all launched despite the opposition. It's just the overall political will to make such a mission. When a mission that calls for a nuke gets funded, we'll have it. I'm not overly concerned about environmental activism blocking it.

The real reason is that the "little portable nuclear reactor" industry is just not one that talks about itself all that much.  :cool: Mainly because aside from outer Solar System missions the main consumers of RTG's and small self-contained reactors are nuclear submarines and spysats that don't want solar panels reflecting/giving away positions.   =D
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Tallpine

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #26 on: March 01, 2010, 10:46:33 AM »
"The Hunt for the Red Planet"


Seriously, the biggest problem that I can see is the lack of an operational shuttle system (we have never had one, IMO  =( )
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PTK

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #27 on: March 01, 2010, 10:47:15 AM »
AJ Dual

Polonium 210 is amazingly fun stuff, eh?  =D
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AJ Dual

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #28 on: March 01, 2010, 11:35:46 AM »
Quote from: PTK on March 01, 2010, 10:47:15 AM
AJ Dual

Polonium 210 is amazingly fun stuff, eh?  =D

Especially in the old days when plumbers used to be able to buy a rod filled with it on the end of a long string, and wrap pipes in film stock to look for pinhole leaks.

Or that case where some hospital wanted to dispose of a drum of Cobalt 60 from an aging radiation machine, and just had the Janitor go abandon it in the back of an old pickup truck in the ghetto somewhere.  :-X
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GigaBuist

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #29 on: March 01, 2010, 11:51:45 AM »
Quote from: Sergeant Bob on February 28, 2010, 01:37:21 PM
With no moon large enough to stabilize it, its axis varies between 13 to 40 degrees, which would cause wild climate swings pretty much rendering it relatively  uninhabitable.

Just send a bunch of us Michiganders.  It'll feel like home for us.
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sanglant

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #30 on: March 01, 2010, 12:08:41 PM »
i'd rather send the algore and it's buddies, they "could save the planet!". [popcorn]
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Brad Johnson

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #31 on: March 02, 2010, 02:29:52 PM »
What about the flux capacitor?  No one's mention the flux capacitor?  Geez people, get with the program...!

Brad
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sanglant

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #32 on: March 02, 2010, 02:53:17 PM »
SHHHH!! the chi-coms don't know aboot the flux capacitor, yet. :facepalm:
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Nick1911

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #33 on: March 02, 2010, 02:57:07 PM »
Quote from: sanglant on March 02, 2010, 02:53:17 PM
SHHHH!! the chi-coms don't know aboot the flux capacitor, yet. :facepalm:

Shame, too.  Once the Chinese get a hold of one, we'll be able to buy inferior copies at ridiculously low prices with a traditionally "American" brand name on em.  ;)
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MechAg94

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #34 on: March 02, 2010, 03:07:03 PM »
Flux capacitors are SciFi dream stuff.  We need Shipstones. 
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Tallpine

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #35 on: March 02, 2010, 05:12:05 PM »
Quote from: Brad Johnson on March 02, 2010, 02:29:52 PM
What about the flux capacitor?  No one's mention the flux capacitor?  Geez people, get with the program...!

Brad

See my reply #19.

The cook cut the wires already.
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RocketMan

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Re: VASIMR Rocket: 39 days to Mars
« Reply #36 on: March 02, 2010, 05:13:27 PM »
Quote from: MechAg94 on March 02, 2010, 03:07:03 PM
Flux capacitors are SciFi dream stuff.  We need Shipstones. 

Yes, we do.
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