LCROSS Lunar Impact |
LCROSS Lunar Impact |
Oct 9 2009, 02:19 AM
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#1
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
T minus 9 hrs. 10 min till impact. NASA TV coverage begins @ 1015 GMT (0315 PDT). Link to coverage here.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Oct 14 2009, 03:33 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 540 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
One thing I'm not understanding here: why is it so important that the hydrogen has to be present in the form of water to be valuable? These spacecraft are picking up some kind of hydrogen signal. If it's in the form of solar wind deposited hydrogen, then fine. You can roast it out of the rocks and you have your ready made rocket fuel, without the step of having to break it out of the water. If you need water, then just combine the hydrogen with readily available lunar oxygen. And if it's a case of scientific study, well, you just go with whatever is there.
We don't yet know if there is any appreciable water. We do know the hydrogen is there. |
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Oct 14 2009, 03:55 PM
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#3
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
We do know the hydrogen is there. We don't know what form it's in. It may be in a form that's hard to liberate. Furthermore - hydrogen on its own, isn't that useful* It's incredibly light so it's not much of a burden for space flight (consider the Mars Direct ISRU numbers). You tend to need something heavy (oxygen) to do something with it. If it's vast swathes of actual ice down there - then we have rocket fuel, air and water for future crews. If it's just hydrogen, you've still got to take 7/8ths the mass with you. * apart from filling balloons - but that's not too useful on the moon |
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Oct 15 2009, 12:16 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 362 Joined: 12-June 05 From: Kiama, Australia Member No.: 409 |
Entire post of blue-sky engineering culled. See rules. - ADMIN
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Oct 15 2009, 12:31 PM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 362 Joined: 12-June 05 From: Kiama, Australia Member No.: 409 |
Entire post of blue-sky engineering culled. See rules. - ADMIN I cant understand why this post has been culled, fission engines using hydrogen as a working fluid were in the design stage in both the USA and Soviet Union in the 1950s and 60s. the Russians even tested one. If this is blue-sky then someone is lacking a bit of faith that any progress is going to be made Seems to me there is more blue-sky engineering in harvesting water from the lunar poles than building these engines "A nuclear engine was considered for some time as a replacement for the J-2 used on the S-II and S-IVB stages on the Saturn V and Saturn I rockets. Originally "drop-in" replacements were considered for higher performance, but a larger replacement for the S-IVB stage was later studied for missions to Mars and other high-load profiles, known as the S-N. Likewise the Soviets studied nuclear engines for their own moon rockets, notably upper stages of the N-1. However, neither design had progressed to the point where they were ready to test before the space race was ostensibly over. To date, no nuclear thermal rocket has flown, or even reached a stage of development where it could be. The Russian nuclear thermal rocket RD-0410 went through a series of tests on the nuclear test site" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket |
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