New Mars Forums

i dont think the article said, but since its non-weapons, i assume uranium

now, you could always get a second hard drive, and pick which OS to boot.  but people arent that smart.

apparently north korea is using our failure to comply with a promise to build two nuclear reactors as a justification for their recent activity.  i can see why theyd be angry, but nuclear weapons are not justified by a lack of power plants.

in any case, from my understanding, the korean reactor is a breeder reactor.  this shows the risks these reactors carry, but they are still potentially extremely beneficial, with proper safeguards.  it also seems suspiciously like a russian construction: the labels are all in korean and russian

if we used a space station as a counterweight, wouldnt it be kind of really easy to expand the station as much as we wanted?  it would be like a permanent life line, if anything needed to be fixed, we could send up help right away.

and is there any maximum size to the counterweight?

i think if we get that elevator up, orbital development will be enough to spur space development.  we dont need the moon to get to mars.

yes, but actually, it would be somewhat inefficient to have them go short distances.  like a plane, they have to accelerate and slow down, both of which take time, since they go hundreds of mph.  so, there application would be in medium to long distance travel.

no, you said you have nothing against mexicans 

all mexicans are hispanics, not all hispanics are mexicans.

these people are making a living for themselves.  and they are a tremendous part of our economy.  the money they make filters back into our economy in stores, and many of them bring their families over.  when they become naturalized, they pay taxes.  their children grow up to be productive american citizens.  they do jobs americans would never do, and by taking these jobs, other citizens can pursue more lucrative careers.

when we have a few well-established martian towns and industrial operations, i think a maglev transport network would be a great idea.  little fuel is needed to run the trains, they are extremely fast, and they can carry plenty of people and goods.  they can run constantly.  while air transport will be important, i think ground transport is also vital.  some goods might be too large to carry in rocketplanes. 

the cost of establishing a maglev system on mars would be much smaller than on earth.  why?  because here, we would have to build around pre-existing towns, cities, etc, and we would have to rip up old lines.  there, we just have to build over open ground between towns.  we could build our towns around the system.

the problem is that north korea broke a treaty that they signed.  Now, they play the all-powerful, "Evil American" card.  It is a perfect way to rally support for an illegal action.  What's in question isnt a nuclear power plant-it's their failure to follow a reasonable, valid treaty.  They arent doing that, so they are getting spiteful.  It's not our fault they violated the treaty.

And for the record, when we broke the ABM treaty, we got Russia's, somewhat reluctant, approval first.  North Korea did no such thing.

We currently are researching and developing medications that can stimulate the production of proteins and cells of any type.  If a trip in microgravity causes bone degeneration, there is no reason why we can't create a drug that stimulates bone growth, or calcium production.  At the very least, we could develop drugs that supply the necessary nutrients directly to the body (bioengineered insulin and other proteins already exist). 

This being the case, the issue of microgravity is really being overdone, to put it lightly.  This is really the primary reason, besides cost, that people have said that Mars travel can't be done.  That logic is ridiculous.

i havent seen anyone building underground bunkers in case of nuclear war.

and people in israel fear going onto buses.  thats the result of common strikes.  no, common strikes dont reduce your fear, they just desensitize you to the reality of it.  you accept the strikes as part of life.  you give in, which is what the terrorists want.

isnt there any way to harness the waste heat?  no way at all?