161–170 of 185 posts
It will be interesting to see a modern design, rather that the something based on 1930s physics, 1940s construction methods, built in the 1950s and put into use in the 1960s like some of these military reactors they used for remote bases.
https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/net-zero/decarbonisin...
"The UKSA will now provide £2.9 million (around $3.52 million) of funding for the project." A nuclear reactor on the moon? I don't get it. Meta spent north of $30 Billions to build a "metaverse" that I would not even consider to be alpha-level quality, and some people at Rolls-Royce think they can build a nuclear reactor for how much?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Rolls-Royce plan to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029". With that deadline I would expect something closer to a proven submarine reactor adapted for an environment without abundant water and fewer convenient ways to get rid of heat.
Once you're on the surface you can sink a fair bit of heat into the ground. The issue in space is that you can't do convection, and there's nothing to conduct to, so you're really just left with giant, inefficient radiators.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They tried launching satellites two months ago in their first ever rocket mission and it failed. Something pretty routine for Russia, US and China and even heavily sanctioned Iran.
As we all know doing something new requires immediate success or it isn’t worth pursuing.
I wonder which endgame is more probable: satellite, or space ship? We have people perfectly willing to shroud earth in sulphur to “protect” us from the sun, so who’s to say those same types won’t repurpose the moon into a luxury spacecraft and take it on a joyride to distant stars?
I mean, billionaires don’t strike me as the kind of people who would want to barely scrape by with limited access to air, water, food, sex, security, shelter until they finally perished cold and alone in the nothing.
I wonder which endgame is more probable: satellite, or space ship? We have people perfectly willing to shroud earth in sulphur to “protect” us from the sun, so who’s to say those same types won’t repurpose the moon into a luxury spacecraft and take it on a joyride to distant stars?
If I am to take your reply seriously, you mean colonize the moon with ultra rich people and then turn it into an arc ship to settle a new world? I mean, billionaires don’t strike me as the kind of people who would want to barely scrape by with limited access to air, water, food, sex, security, shelter until they finally perished cold and alone in the nothing.
Yes, I said it in a jokey way but I’m actually seriously speculating about that as a distant future scenario, though I’d include their servants, clones, entertainers, staff, recruits, and progeny in that, along with probably a DNA bank of every person, animal, and strand of bacteria on earth.
> with limited access to air, water, food, sex, security, shelter until they finally perished cold and alone in the nothing
Who said anything about that? I mean, they’d be “limited”, yes, in the strictly mathematical sense that these things are finite, but they need not lack in abundance. I did say luxury space craft, didn’t I? I’m not talking about heated seats here, I’m talking nuclear powered underground cities…
First my pocket computer hugely outperforms my 90’s desktop, space rockets get privatized and much cheaper, there’s probably an actual AI online, and now we’re putting a nuclear reactor on the moon. Awesome! (I hope)
I wonder which endgame is more probable: satellite, or space ship? We have people perfectly willing to shroud earth in sulphur to “protect” us from the sun, so who’s to say those same types won’t repurpose the moon into a luxury spacecraft and take it on a joyride to distant stars?
If I am to take your reply seriously, you mean colonize the moon with ultra rich people and then turn it into an arc ship to settle a new world? I mean, billionaires don’t strike me as the kind of people who would want to barely scrape by with limited access to air, water, food, sex, security, shelter until they finally perished cold and alone in the nothing.
"The UKSA will now provide £2.9 million (around $3.52 million) of funding for the project." A nuclear reactor on the moon? I don't get it. Meta spent north of $30 Billions to build a "metaverse" that I would not even consider to be alpha-level quality, and some people at Rolls-Royce think they can build a nuclear reactor for how much?
FAANG spending isn’t the norm, the total program cost of the Mars 2020 rover was $2.7 billion. Meta spent $30 billion on something that looks like SecondLife on the Wii… But also this ain’t the total cost just how much money the UK government is funding the project for right now.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2013/11/07/how-india...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
FAANG spending isn’t the norm, the total program cost of the Mars 2020 rover was $2.7 billion. Meta spent $30 billion on something that looks like SecondLife on the Wii… But also this ain’t the total cost just how much money the UK government is funding the project for right now.
It’s really mind boggling how much money Meta spent on this thing.