News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on Mars. Parent comment

Re:U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on ... by manmal on Friday January 19, 2018 @02:43AM (#16184724)
> the reactor can just be jettisoned before re-entering Earth‘s gravity well

I think if there’s one thing to be learned from previous missions, it’s that nothing will „just work“. If the ejection mechanism is damaged, or the spacecraft is hit by some object and rendered useless shortly before ejection, then the radioactive payload will make it to Earth. I think a roundtrip would be dangerous, and the core should be left at Mars.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on ... by red75prime on Friday January 19, 2018 @03:26AM (#16184842)
The political fallout will probably be more dangerous than adding another kilowatt-class nuclear reactor to decaying megawatt-class ones on sunken submarines.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on ... by ahoka on Friday January 19, 2018 @04:57AM (#16185152)
This actually happened in the past. A Russian radar satellite failed to eject its nuclear reactor to a safe parking orbit and fell in Canada instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on ... by mholmes680 on Friday January 19, 2018 @10:22AM (#16186845)
Never heard about this before, thanks for above link. Good link on Kosmos 954 recovery operation here: http://nationalinterest.org/feature/operation-morning-light-...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on ... by black_puppydog on Friday January 19, 2018 @03:11AM (#16184800)
in that case you could still divert the vehicle itself, assuming it's unmanned. My point is: yes, leaving it on mars is a pretty safe solution, but it's not the only one.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on ... by mrfusion on Friday January 19, 2018 @08:56AM (#16186183)
Triple redundancy usually works really well. Fail safes are great too.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on ... by lordelph on Friday January 19, 2018 @09:38AM (#16186475)
"Hal, perform the earth orbit insertion burn" "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that" "Hal, come on, not this shit again?" "Dave, the reactor core cannot be ejected, and cannot be allowed to enter orbit" "Hal, WTF?" "Crew ejection will occur in 3, 2, 1...Goodbye Dave"
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. tests nuclear power system to sustain astronauts on ... by jlebrech on Friday January 19, 2018 @04:13AM (#16184994)
things are more and more likely to work now we can simulate things with computers first.
[ Parent | on HN ]