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: 14432 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, 12:49 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 |
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 Ill try to repeat my original post and see if it get through this time Hydrogen used as a propellant in a fission rocket has a much higher impulse than when you waste it by burning it with oxygen. Designs for these do exist, you would only have to carry a couple of tens of kgs of uranium and it does not have the same emotive radiation hazard that it would have if launched from Earth. Even at 6.8% water there would be plenty to drink and breathe And would like to add in support "Usually, with hydrogen propellant the solid-core design is expected to deliver specific impulses (Isp) on the order of 800 to 900 seconds, about twice that of liquid hydrogen-oxygen designs such as the Space Shuttle main engine." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket |
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