What does Kimberly Wells say about this ?
Lunar warming!
Nuclear winter!
Johnny Winter!
Well, the Rats are otherwise occupied at the time.
I knew a guy in the 1990’s, a serious leftist, who scaled one of NASA’s walls or something to protest a launch with a nuclear reactor, was really upset at his treatment by cops, their twistie-tie handcuffs were too tight, poor food in the jail, LOL.
Wow, that was 30 years ago.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12517060-100-protest-groups-move-to-halt-space-mission/
What about the “not in my backyard” crowd?
*ping*
Should look into Thorium based reactors.
What other choice would they have? There is no coal, water for dams, wind, and cant do solar since the moon has day/night cycles. Nuclear is their only option.
I don’t know much about nuclear power but I do know that every nuclear power plant is built next to a large body of water which is necessary to cool the reactors. Does nuclear power need oxygen?
A passive nuclear reactor sounds cool,
Though reviewing the story ( I know it violated FR norms)
Three government agencies work together to design and build a 10kw generator and after they spend untold monies it only produces 1/2 the intended power.
Perhaps I’m just being a cynic, but this sounds like typical government results.
When you look at Space, Weight And Power (SWAP) tradeoffs, nothing comes close to nuclear in efficiency. For the smallest cubic space and weight, you get dramatically more power output.
Additionally, they can be ultra-reliable, which is a life or death issue in space.
You can have some solar panels, you can mine some fuel locally, but you need to have a (few) safely buried nuclear power source(s) to be sure of life support, and to get the heavy lifting done (figuratively speaking). Kilowatts from solar, megawatts from nuclear.
Good, we don’t want to see the damming of the moon’s rivers for generating hydroelectric power, it would affect the spawning of the lunar salmon.
How about we get back there first and then make decisions on powering a settlement?
I remember when the Cassini probe was launched, people were terribly concerned about the nuclear reactor suffering an accident near earth.
Too bad The Professor has passed away.
Seriously, Pu238 would be the safest and easiest to setup.
It would give you enough power to setup solar panels and they are small and light weight.
They’ll pollute the Moon and Mars making them unfit for life! Think of the children!!!
Why not just use Windmills? There’s plenty of Solar Wind on the Moon.
Three to five 100Kw LTRs to start, with an N-2 power safety setup. Oakridge had a working test reactor fifty years ago. Use the tech, updated of course based on what we know now. There’s Thorium in the lunar soil. Probably enough to refuel there, if the extraction tech is sent along or created there.
Astronaut Settlement?
I didn’t realize the astronauts had unionized. What did they sue over?
There is no other way, no rivers, no wind, solar panels do not work well when broken ...