4 ms·

Pay spaceX to shoot it into the sun, why not?

by w0de0 6y ago

yellowapple 6y ago
Given unlimited money, this might be reasonable, but it's worth noting that the delta-V requirements for shooting something into the Sun are pretty astronomically (pun intended) high.
_Microft 6y ago
From Earth, it is much easier to eject something from the solar system than to get it to fall into the sun by the way. Well, not just Earth but from almost everywhere in the solar system (assuming being on an almost circular orbit).
- eloff 6y ago
  You'd need to fire the rocket to slow down sufficiently to fall into the sun right? Just imagining the solar system as a bowling ball at the center of a trampoline surrounded by fast moving billiard balls. The problem is probably the speed the earth is moving at, plus the speed we had to get the rocket up to, to get it off earth.
  - pdonis 6y ago
    > You'd need to fire the rocket to slow down sufficiently to fall into the sun right? Yes, which is around 30 km/s of delta-v, as compared with only 12 km/s delta-v to boost an object from Earth's orbit (assuming you launch it in the same direction that Earth is traveling) to escape velocity from the solar system.
notriddle 6y ago
As long as you're sure it'll actually go into space and not just explode in the upper atmosphere.
ldbooth 6y ago
Why not? Because the environmental cost of a failed launch is massive. It's radioactive roulette. Where it lands... Depends on which way the wind is blowing.
w0de0 6y ago
You people are atrocious pedants.
AngryData 6y ago
Too dangerous to send up in a rocket, especially considering we can reprocess and concentrate our nuclear waste into a absolutely tiny amount and bury it so far down that it will never reach the surface of the earth ever again. But of course without a large stable nuclear industry there is no demand/profit to be made from nuclear reprocessing when you can't get the materials to reprocess long term. We also have to deal with a bunch of old and outdated rules that give hard no's to certain reprocessing technology which was decided before we understood how most if it even worked.

Pay spaceX to shoot it into the sun, why not?

by w0de0 6y ago

Pay spaceX to shoot it into the sun, why not?

Given unlimited money, this might be reasonable, but it's worth noting that the delta-V requirements for shooting something into the Sun are pretty astronomically (pun intended) high.

_Microft 6y ago

From Earth, it is much easier to eject something from the solar system than to get it to fall into the sun by the way. Well, not just Earth but from almost everywhere in the solar system (assuming being on an almost circular orbit).

eloff 6y ago
You'd need to fire the rocket to slow down sufficiently to fall into the sun right? Just imagining the solar system as a bowling ball at the center of a trampoline surrounded by fast moving billiard balls. The problem is probably the speed the earth is moving at, plus the speed we had to get the rocket up to, to get it off earth.
- pdonis 6y ago
  > You'd need to fire the rocket to slow down sufficiently to fall into the sun right? Yes, which is around 30 km/s of delta-v, as compared with only 12 km/s delta-v to boost an object from Earth's orbit (assuming you launch it in the same direction that Earth is traveling) to escape velocity from the solar system.

notriddle 6y ago

As long as you're sure it'll actually go into space and not just explode in the upper atmosphere.

ldbooth 6y ago

Why not? Because the environmental cost of a failed launch is massive. It's radioactive roulette. Where it lands... Depends on which way the wind is blowing.

w0de0 6y ago

You people are atrocious pedants.

AngryData 6y ago

Too dangerous to send up in a rocket, especially considering we can reprocess and concentrate our nuclear waste into a absolutely tiny amount and bury it so far down that it will never reach the surface of the earth ever again. But of course without a large stable nuclear industry there is no demand/profit to be made from nuclear reprocessing when you can't get the materials to reprocess long term. We also have to deal with a bunch of old and outdated rules that give hard no's to certain reprocessing technology which was decided before we understood how most if it even worked.