Clickbait headline.
If they make some kind of Moon base with China, of course they’re going to put an RTG or something there; that’d make a lot of sense.
Also, even the legacy of the Soviet space program is no joke. There’s a reason Soyuz delivered astronauts around the world (including US ones) to space forever… that being said, China would definitely be the leading partner here.
Ok
Again with this propaganda bullshit. Don’t you people get tired of swallowing Putler’s cum?
This is nottheonion. You understand the point of this place right?
Posting something “as a joke” makes the propaganda less propaganda?
That’s how things are spread. Ofc eveyone will pretend not to take this seriously. But despite you pretending I can’t understand what “Not the onion” posts are about, we’re probably gonna end this with you avoiding answering me to why Russia has committed so many crimes against humanity.
First you’ll pretend not to know what I’m talking about and “how does that even” or some annyoing bullshit I’ve seen a million times.
Just like Davel@lemmy.ml claims to be an American while clearly being Russian, just like MicroWave pretends he’s an actual user and not a pathetic propaganda shill, you’ll pretend something along those lines as well, I’m guessing.
This is a place if ridicule, not admiration. I don’t know why Russia commits atrocities, and da comrade totally Russian yes, my indigenous heritage and Welsh ancestors were obviously Russian spies sent to infiltrate America during the Ice Age and 1600s and I am the culmination of this plan. Not everyone that disagrees with you is a Russian botfarm
By reposting something Russians bots have been using, you are part of their propaganda though.
Shit like is what led to trump.
“no bad pr”
Jesus fuck, Russia can barely build a coal-fired plant in Moscow these days. They’re barely holding their own against a country they invaded that had virtually no preparation for being invaded because they thought a treaty protected them, so a bunch of farmers and housewives took up arms.
Good fucking luck, Vlad. Russia is a country of drunks and weaklings that can’t tie their own shoes and has been embarassed on the international stage since the 19th century. You’re a joke country that happens to have nuclear weapons, it’s like an autistic child with a molotov cocktail.
Autistic child joke is not cool.
Also, I kinda feel for Russian folks. Propaganda is a hell of a drug, and from what I’ve seen in some gaming chats many aren’t swallowing it, and seem aware of their situation.
Hey at least if they screw this one up it (probably) wont irradiate half the planet.
No they don’t
They can plan it all they want
There’s only two sources of power on other planets/outer space, and that is nuclear and solar.
Wind and water and biomass and geothermal and fossil fuels are out of the question, because of lack of said things or lack of oxygen to burn anything.
That being said, “nuclear” only works if it’s steady-state and does not use water/air input. That excludes steam engines and such, and basically only leaves RTGs (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator).
These are solid-state devices (meaning they have no moving parts) and convert the heat directly into electricity using TEGs (Thermoelectric Generator). They don’t need water or air input.
RTGs have an overall fuel efficiency of around 3-5%, meaning they translate around 3-5% of the radioactive decay heat of the nuclear material into electric power output.
Wait, why would wind and water be rare on other planets? Finding good places to do water-based renewables is probably gonna be difficult on most planets, but shouldn’t most planets with atmospheres have wind?
yeah you’re right, air can be used on mars for example. (not wind though because wind is too weak at only 6 mbar atmospheric pressure, so it can barely move anything, and especially not a heavy rotary blade from a wind turbine.) but you could use the air to drive a stirling engine or sth, maybe, if you compress it first.
but the engine has to be really low-maintenance, because repairing it is basically out of the question. repairing something very far away from any larger civilization is really difficult. and typically, things that have no moving parts (steady-state) are much less likely to break, so have much longer lifetimes.
Reactors on earth are huge and built to run at 100% all the time because that’s the most economical way to do it. That is not a physics requirement, it’s just the most profitable for the current economic environment. You can design a reactor that can throttle output if you need to and many small modular reactors currently in the licensing approval process include this ability.
Nevermind the fact that a “large” RTG only puts out about 100 watts of electricity and it’s nuclear fuel must be bred in reactors beforehand. There is only enough RTG fuel for maybe 20 large units on the planet right now.
You can design a reactor that can throttle output if you need to
yeah i’ve been thinking about these reactors a lot. problem is, to make a reactor regulatable like that, the material must be fissable. I.e. you can’t use PU-238 (which has a half-life of 87 years and is typically used in RTGs today), instead you’d use U-235 or sth (which is used in big nuclear reactors today). Problem is, that material is fissable (i.e. it undergoes chain reaction and runs at or just below criticality) and that is why you can build bombs out of it. Then, to bring such a reactor into space, you’d have to lift it off with a rocket, and there’s your problem: You’d have to transport (large amounts of) fissable material with a rocket across earth into the sky. And that’s how you provoke international nuclear conflict.
Reactor fuel and bomb fuel are very different things. Current reactors use U-235 enriched to between ~2-5% with some of the new SMR designs using fuel enriched to ~20%. Bombs use ~90% enrichment. You can’t make a bomb with less than that enrichment. The physics just don’t work. No one is going to think that your rocket carrying a reactor bound for the moon is secretly a bomb headed to a city.
Also the total amount of fuel you would need for something like a 100MW reactor would be on the order of 100kg. Maybe up to 500kg depending on design. A tiny fraction of a rockets payload. You could easily let international inspectors look at it before launch to ease any fears.
Current reactors use U-235 enriched to between ~2-5% with some of the new SMR designs using fuel enriched to ~20%. Bombs use ~90% enrichment. You can’t make a bomb with less than that enrichment. The physics just don’t work.
What i don’t get, then, is why can nuclear power plants explode at all?
Because Russian time estimates have been so very reliable the last few years
There is clearly a difference in peoples understanding of the general ways in west compared to east blocks.
Suuure russia. Ofc you are still a big mighty strong power that can beat up anyone especially all of NATO at once. Now here is cookie
They also planned to overrun Ukraine in three days.
Given the usual level of Russian corruption, they will notice when they want to draw power from that reactor that someone had already sold off the nuclear fuel and replaced the rods on the reactor with lead.
Ah, so I have a joke about Soviet corruption that applies to modern Russia too
A brand new apartment building in Moscow collapses. Investigators are sent to interrogate the suspects.
First they ask the sand. The sand defends itself: “How could you even suspect me? I’m so white, pure of heart!”
Second they ask a brick. The brick replies: “Look at me, so red. An exemplary communist, how could you suspect me?”
Last, they ask the cement. The cement goes: “Why are you blaming me? I wasn’t even there!”
Sure, and I plan to win the lottery.
Russia’s got more of a space program than the US at this point. And they’ve continued to build and modernize their nuclear infrastructure, with the youngest plant coming online as recently as 2020 and seven in the pipe.
They’re two industries the country has keep in relative working order while the rest of the economy was scrapped for parts back in the '90s/'00s.
Insane to think they are in a position to colonize the moon when they’re quagmired in Ukraine and slaughtering hundreds of thousands of young men to keep at it. But they have the kit to try in a way no other county - except maybe China or India - could hope to.
The next day: “well ho-ly shit…”
Translation: russian government is out of ideas on how to embezzle even more budget money.
Sees article about a new and innovative embezzlement method. Concludes that they’re out of ideas.
Oh yes, moon nazis intensifies.
We know how new year’s resolutions usually turn out
