New Mars Forums

Blame America - why not, they blame the USA for just about everything. How long before Iran starting blowing up Nukes ?

Here's what those French think
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/ … index.html
Iran's nuclear activity is a cover for a clandestine weapons program, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy has said in France's most direct attack on Tehran

No, I don't think its a fake because normal explosives wouldn't normally be that big a bomb, plus at Magnitude 4.2 or 4.3 at 0 km (~0 mile) depth sounds like a Nuke,  there was also suspicious activity picked up by satellites a few days before.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/rec … ustqab.php
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/ … 8000c.html
And we have also known the DPRK have had a WMD program for many years. The Nuke may have been a small one but it compares to some of the test done by Pakistan or the US explosions at Nevada, and the scale of Kim's Nuke is still more than dozens of times greater than the most powerful conventional weapons. It sounds like they had a little problem with the detonator timer, because without "crushing" the core of the device in just the correct way, the inward-moving wave of the explosion will not yield the devastating impact intended ( 10-30 Kilotonnes ? ) the nuclear bomb needs to explode within one-millionth of a second after ignition . For dictator Kim Jong il to get the most out of his bomb he requires high-precision detonator technology and it sounds like the timer is a little off (hence the smaller explosion). Anyway he's still got plenty of material for more Nukes and he's got to get his ICBM working properly if he wants to hit Washington (only his shorter range 2,000 km Nodong-2 missiles work)

Muslim cabbies refuse the blind and drinkers
http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/ … 61,00.html
At least 20 dog-aided blind people have lodged discrimination complaints with the Victorian Taxi Directorate. Dozens more have voiced their anger.

Muslim cab drivers in Minneapolis-St. Paul have issued a “jihad” against customers who carry alcohol. The cabbies refuse to transport anyone carrying alcoholic products.
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/18897.html

Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see how good the predictions for the Stick's safety assesment were once it gets moving in 2015

The Vega will small payloads like the smaller Delta-2, Kosmos, Japanese M5 and early Atlas have done. This new rocket will be designed to launch small payloads - perhaps 500 to 1,900 kg satellites for scientific study in space and launch Earth observation missions.  It is not unheard of to use such a small rocket for planetary missions - some of Boeing's small rockets have done this like the launch of the Pathfinder-Sojourner mission.

On 14 September 2006 a ceremony took place at the facilities of Snecma Propulsion Solide (SPS) in Bordeaux, France, to mark the occasion of the delivery of the first nozzle for the P80 solid rocket motor. The P80 is the first stage of the Vega small launcher.
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHV38LURE_index_0.html
The P80 nozzle delivery is a key milestone for the Vega programme. It is the result of several years of intensive development activities, during which Snecma Propulsion Solide performed the detailed definition of the various components of the nozzle, and validated new manufacturing processes. They achieved a major step forward in this area of technology aimed at reducing costs. This is a major event for Vega but it is also a precursor to future updates in the design of Ariane 5 boosters.

Italy is the leading contributor to the Vega programme with 65%, other participants being France (12.43%), Belgium (5.63%), Spain (5%), The Netherlands (3.5%), Switzerland (1.34%) and Sweden (0.8%). Belgium, France, Italy and The Netherlands also contribute to the P80 programme.

I'm not talking about Nuke Powered Rockets like Orion (watch out for crazy Wayne) or a GCNR rocket I'm talking about getting electricity and heat for people on Mars and talking about Nuclear Powered mining colonies on Moon/Mars. For power on Mars, it unlikely that wind is going to do much and Solar energy may not provide enough. So the first people on Mars may be getting their energy from device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled, and sustained at a steady rate. So no talk about 'Fusion-reactors' or such stuff because they only exist in science fiction. Would a PWR or fission fragment reactor work best on a Lunar site or Mars base ?

There was the idea to use the Moon as testbed for long term Mars missions

India is currently getting ready for its robotic Chandrayaan 1 probe to the Moon but India is at a bit of a crossroads in its national space development program, having to decide if it will invest more of its small budget on manned space flightTheir HQ is in Bangalore, the ISRO employs approximately 20,000 people. For manned flight hey've mostly been hitching a ride on foreign rockets most notably their Indo-Soviet manned space mission
I know some articles hinted at manned Indian space flights. Do you think they'll be able to put people on the Moon ?

The Hiroshima bomb was very weak by today's standards, but it still managed to kill anywhere between 110,000-210,000 men, women and Japanese children depending on whose accounts you are reading and if you take the radiation sickness and birth defects into consideration.
Most of Hiroshima was totally destroyed, an entrie city leveled and the people who survived there sometimes still live as atomic outcasts in Japan, also know as  'Hiba-kusha' outcasts.
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Japan/Victim2.jpg
Today mankind has been building weapons Thousands of Times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb,  nuclear bombs which are tens of megaton like the Tsar bomb or other designs which were hundreds of megatons would be 7,100 times the 15 kiloton bomb detonated at Hiroshima.

and more here

Russia Plans To Launch First Flight To The Moon In 2011-2012
http://www.moondaily.com/

Russia plans to conduct its first manned flight around the Moon in 2011-2012, the president of a leading spacecraft company said Thursday.
"The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation plans to explore the Moon in three stages: a Soyuz spacecraft flight to the Moon, the construction of a permanent base on the Moon (from 2010 to 2025), and the industrial exploration of space around the Earth's satellite," Nikolai Sevastyanov said at the 5th Airspace Congress in the Russian capital.

China announces plans to expand its ambitious space exploration program to Mars. The official Xinhua news agency says Beijing intends to launch its first lunar probe next year.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004296759
The deputy head of China's space program said in June the country would place a man on the moon by 2024. Xinhua says in the next five years, "China will on the basis of its Moon probes actively plan deep space exploration, focusing on lunar and Mars exploration."

China's space exploration plans include not only missions to the moon but also Mars

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/ … pace.reut/

China will also seek international cooperation for its deep space plans, it quoted Sun Laiyan, head of the China National Space Administration, as saying.