NASA Announces Public Meeting for Proposed Mars Mission Options

[gndonald]

The Anti's couldn't stop Pioneer, Voyager, Viking, Cassini, Galileo or NH....they won't stop MSL either.

Doug

I don't think there were protests for missions from Viking to Ulysses/Galileo. I could be wrong but I don't think that they started until after some 'ding-dong' claimed that when Galileo entered Jupiters atmosphere the RTG were going to explode and set Jupiters atmosphere on fire!

I'd also like to add that I think NASA is only considering Solar Power for MSL because it's required to by the EPA, after all, the paperwork for the RTGs on Cassini reputedly cost as much as the Pathfinder rover.

Ditto for that mention of solar powered missions to Neptune. One wonders how much wasted design effort goes into pandering to the fears of the Anti's 'rent-a-crowd', who will no doubt be out in force at the hearings.

[lyford]

I agree that much of the noise is maddening, but I do think we should not confuse the process with the hysterical responses of an emotional few. A publicly funded project should most certainly do impact reports; it's basically just describing what the scope of a project is, what the expected consequences would be, any ways to mitigate those consequences and any alternative ways to do the project. I shudder to mention there is a THIRD way described in the EIS - "No Action" -which means NASA won't do this mission to Mars at all! (Apparently this is a standard item in these statements, and I guess it's true - one could always choose not to do something.)

Anyway, the paperwork is a hassle, but it does serve the public interest to make known what potential impacts there are to a project before it is begun. Much better to plan for potential problems in the open than to have to do an impact statement after the hydrazine may have already leaked into the groundwater....

I think what really is at issue here is not so much a nuclear safety fear, but the general public's inability to deal rationally with large numbers and understand statistics.


(As someone who just moved to Carlsbad, I live a mile away from a "mitigated impact." When the plans were drawn for the expansion of Los Angeles Harbor, the trade off was the destruction of habitat in L.A. would be mitigated by the restoration of habitat elsewhere - the Batiquitos Lagoon.)

[MarkL]

I greatly enjoyed this discussion. It seems to me that the real problem is allowing the making of a mountain from a molehill. The risk to people on the ground is utterly minute but has, with PR leverage and support of pliant media, been blown up (pun intended) into some potential catastrophic event. It's like a petri dish for wing nuts after that type of sensationalism. If you want to advance you just have to take the required steps forward and shake off these wing nuts. Send them back to their caves with their dogeared copies of Pandas and People tucked firmly somewhere in their anatomy.

[RNeuhaus]

NASA Weighs Power-Source Options for Mars Rover

NASA expects to decide by the end of the year whether to use conventional solar arrays or a nuclear battery to power the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory rover.

Another important point is that NASA is waiting until one year prior to launch to make a final landing site selection, waiting for the latest information gathered by the planned MRO to identify a safe spot to land.

Rodolfo

[edstrick]

You have to remember that one of the main methods the mass media use to increase reader/viewer/listenership and thus increase advertising revenue is CONTROVERSY MONGERING. Take a controversy, no matter how flimsy, pit an ACTIVIST against a CORPORATE PR FLACK or a government BUREAU-CRAP, give equal weight to their claims, ignore evidence.. and you have a wildfire controversy spreading like contagious hysteria.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Well much a do about nothing ???

I believe the US space agency already launched over 25 missions using RTGs and nothing ‘major’ went wrong … Remember that RTGs are ruggedized = designed to withstand both impact on land/water and other forms of damage and destruction. Moreover the ‘radio-active’ fuel cell is well encased in some ceramic-shell.
Best of all, RTGs cannot explode because there’s no fusion nor fission process.

[MahFL]

The general public don't know what a nuclear explosion is. I would not want to eat a pound of Pu though....I am heavy enough as it is lol !!!!