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Could we use this to launch radioactive waste into space at higher speeds than what’s needed to remain in orbit?
by culopatin 5y ago
Could we use this to launch radioactive waste into space at higher speeds than what’s needed to remain in orbit?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- SapporoChris 5y agoNo. Escape Velocity (https://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Escape-Velocity https://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Escape-Velocity) is: 11.2 km/s. From the article, they've only achieved 8,047 km/h or 2.23 km/s. Also, flinging waste from your home into the air and hoping it won't come back down sounds like a really bad idea.
- jdmichal 5y agoJust for giggles, that works out to ~17.42 kilowatt-hours per kilogram of mass, just for the pure kinetic energy. Then you have inefficiencies like electricty-to-kinetic-energy conversion losses and atmospheric drag to contend with. It's honestly a smaller number than I expected it to be. So I suspect that those inefficiencies add up pretty fast.
- throwmeariver1 5y agoWith the extremely limited resources of earth we can't just throw something into space without knowing if there could be any future use. Where did we put the energy dense radioactive stuff again? We could use it... Sorry boss we yeeted it into space.
- panick21_ 5y agoCalling some of the most rare and sometimes useful materials on earth 'waste' is just dumb beyond believe.
- dotnet00 5y agoIt would still need a rocket to prevent the waste from coming back around and striking the launch site. To not have it come back, it'd need to be shot out at Earth escape velocity (there's also the option of shooting it out fast enough for the Moon to offer an assist to put things into orbit). Although of course that fast of a throw from within the atmosphere is probably not practical.