Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by hirundo on Monday March 28, 2022 @07:22PM
(#30836812)
I guess plutonium is right out then. I hope they make exceptions for sufficiently safe launch vehicles that put their payloads beyond Earth orbit.
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Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by Kim_Bruning on Monday March 28, 2022 @10:10PM
(#30837954)
Plutonium should be ok?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_ge...
Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by db48x on Monday March 28, 2022 @08:18PM
(#30837175)
Plutonium is not a propellant.
Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by hirundo on Monday March 28, 2022 @08:25PM
(#30837233)
See e.g. Project Orion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...
Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by db48x on Monday March 28, 2022 @09:50PM
(#30837828)
It’s still not a propellant, and use of nuclear explosives in the atmosphere or near earth orbit is already covered by other treaties.
Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by abracadaniel on Monday March 28, 2022 @11:18PM
(#30838371)
There’s nuclear thermal rocket engines that have been explored, but those don’t actually use the nuclear fuel as a propellant either. They use hydrogen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA
Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by db48x on Monday March 28, 2022 @11:41PM
(#30838499)
NASA was even beginning to study gas–core nuclear engines, where the nuclear fuel is a superheated gas or plasma. Some open–cycle designs where proposed, but NASA choose to study closed–cycle engines such as the nuclear lightbulb engine instead because they don’t leak fissile fuel into the propellant stream. Leaving aside the safety problems, it is uneconomical to lift a fuel into space only to have it escape the rocket unused.
Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by skykooler on Tuesday March 29, 2022 @12:43AM
(#30838853)
It's technically a propellant - the reaction mass is the spent fragments of each explosion.
Re:UN Bans Mercury Satellite Propellants Under New Minamata ...
by eesmith on Tuesday March 29, 2022 @12:57AM
(#30838932)
The article mentions an exception to allow mercury use:
“The Minamata Convention on Mercury seeks to eliminate all mercury uses where technically-achievable non-mercury alternatives are available,”
By comparison, plutonium is not particularly toxic. I see no reason a similar treaty wouldn't have a similar exception.