> "Robert J. Chassell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snipping nearly all> > > As for inexpensive earth to orbit travel: there are > two obvious ways to achieve this: > > * A nuclear thermal rocket....The problem with >nuclear thermal rockets is two fold. Firstly, > the current designs always put some radioactive > fission products > into the exhaust. The impression I get is that > the releases per > launch are less than a 1 GW coal-fired electric > power station puts > into the air (from uranium dust in the coal that > goes up the smoke stack). But I don't know.
That would depend on how many rockets were launched per year, but I daresay most countries 'downwind' would not be pleased at such 'fallout.' > Secondly, some nuclear thermal rockets will > crash. That is > inevitable, just as some nuclear submarines have > sunk. Launch > trajectories can be designed so that not too > much damage is done > by a crash; but people will worry. How > confident are you that > Russian or Ukrainian built vehicles will safer > than the nuclear power station at Chernobol? Not very much, no. > * An air-augmented chemical rocket....Of course, >air-augmented rockets, like current > airliners, put water > into the stratosphere. Some have argued that > this water is or will > upset the climate. The US is covered with > contrails, which are a > visible indicator of such water. And over the > past 30 years, people > have seen a decrease in the amount of measured > sunlight in western > Europe. (And maybe elsewhere; I don't know.)... According to an engineer at a solar power station in Arizona, yes: what I was told several years ago [private communication] was a "noticable reduction" in sunlight intensity reaching the panels. <scratches head> The number I recall was 40% - which seems quite absurdly high! - so perhaps it was 4%...? Another source of sunlight deflection in southern Arizona would be air pollution; the brown haze over Phoenix and Tucson can be truly appalling. And when I worked in Yuma, when the winds blew from the south during agricultural burning/fertilizing, I could not only feel & smell various contaminants, but over the following weeks would see an increase in respiratory complaints in the clinic. Debbi who wants to believe, but doesn't __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
