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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2004)
lag; SciITech The Battalion Page 3 • Wednesday, April 28, 2004 lave Nuclear power could help propel spaceships on distant flights into the atmosphere By Robert S. Boyd KRT CAMPUS WASHINGTON — To boost future space- ps to distant moons and planets, the Bush inistration is turning to nuclear power, long a fio-no for a nation nervous about anything to do with radioactivity. ^■Despite activists’ fears of a nuclear accident, NlSA has used small atomic generators to power sck ntific instruments and communications sys tems on at least 25 space missions over the last 30 years. Unlike batteries, which run down, or solar ^Hiels, which don’t work well far from the sun, niilear generators give steady, reliable, almost Junl united power. E/HEach of the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, has eight penny-sized pellets of ■ radioactive plutonium aboard to keep its elec- Inic instruments warm during the freezing U^.iMlirtian night. The huge Cassini spaceship, JSJwlich will reach Saturn in June after a seven- year voyage, carries 72 pounds of plutonium to produce electrical energy. _HTo the dismay of some opponents of nuclear p a( jprbjects in space or on the ground, NASA has be; m work on a far more controversial project. desiMFor the first time, it intends to use a powerful nia lear-propulsion system to send a large scientif- lie spaceship, traveling as fast as 50,000 mph, on a itotu of the ice-covered moons of Jupiter, where scientists think they might find evidence of life. ^■NASA’s science chief, Ed Weiler, calls the ship "Battlestar Galactica," after the science-fic tion TV show. *"■1116 proposed spaceship will depend on mjclear fission — splitting uranium atoms — to .,M>pel it to the neighborhood of Jupiter, starting ""Onetime after 2011. (When the atoms are split, they will generate heat that can be converted to electricity. The elec- trkity, in turn, would accelerate electrically ncharged hydrogen atoms and speed them out the rear of the spaceship, thrusting it forward. jKjjjBThe multibillion-dollar mission is known as short for Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. e#Vt’s the first phase of a larger NASA program tli^Bled Prometheus, which is designed to develop aid Bclear propulsion for a series of space missions, ftm including the human expedition to Mars that , bsident Bush proposed in January, versil) jil r.- :mr: NASA wants to spend $2 billion developing Prometheus over the next five years. JIMO’s trip to Mars would cost bil lions more. "Our nuclear budget is going up radically," Weiler said JIMO will be "difficult both techni cally and politically," Prometheus direc tor Alan Newhouse acknowledged. Before the space reactor can get off the ground, members of Congress will have turned over several times and one or two new presidents will have been in the White House. Support for putting a nuclear power plant in space may not last that long. "It depends on who wins the next several presidential elections," said John Pike, an expert on space policy and director of GlobalSecurity, a nonprofit organization in Washington. "Another administration might not want it." Prometheus officials say a nuclear fis sion system would give a spaceship up to 100 times more thrust than a non-nuclear system of similar weight. JIMO could make the trip to Jupiter in one-third to half the time of today's vessels, which are launched by chemical rockets fueled by hydrogen and oxygen. Using current tech nology, the trip takes about 38 months. Furthermore, the current generation of spaceships, once they've dropped off their booster rockets, depend on batter ies or solar power, which have limited capabilities. "Solar does not provide enough power at the outer planets, which are too far from the sun," Newhouse said. "Chemical (power) limits maneu verability and destination. We launch and we coast. We can't change targets. We can't operate many instruments. We can't transmit a great deal of information." With nuclear propulsion, he said, "we have power all the way. We can go into orbit, slow down, stay there, go back, change targets. We have almost unlimited power for instruments. We can send back much more data. We have more launch opportuni ties. We don't have to wait for the planets to line up." The pro-nuclear enthusiasm of the Bush administration rankles activists, who oppose put ting atomic devices in space. Bruce Gagnon, the coordinator of the Global Nuclear power for long flight to Jupiter The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, a crewless space probe planned for some time after 2011, will have a nuclear engine, which is more powerful than non-nuclear engines but raises safety concerns. Communication Radiation shield Radar antenna Frame Nuclear reactor splits uranium atoms; reaction creates Electric generator uses heat to generate electricity How the thrusters work Heat radiator disperses excess. heat into spac Electric current ' puts opposite electric charges on propellant and grid Propellant Hydrogen, argon or other gas Positive propellant ions Negative grid p Gas rushes ^ toward grid, passes through it* Backward force pushes spacecraft forward * Charge neutralized as gas passes courtesy of • KRT CAMPUS Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Brunswick, Maine, is concerned about the envi ronmental consequences of an accident. "We're told, 'Don't worry; everything is going to be safe,"’ he said. "But space technology fails on occasion. We've seen enough examples, like the Russian 1996 Mars mission that fell back to Earth and spread a half-pound of plutonium around. Imagine if Columbia (the space shuttle that exploded last year) had a nuclear reactor on it." NASA officials contend that JIMO will be safe. They point out that the spaceship will be launched on a conventional chemical rocket. The nuclear reactor won't be turned on until it's well out in space, beyond where it could fall back to Earth. Even if a spaceship carrying uranium or pluto nium blew up on the ground — or tumbled to Earth like Columbia — officials say there's little risk of harm to people. Unlike plutonium-239, the stuff of nuclear bombs, plutonium-238, the material used in on board power generators, is "quite harmless," said John Hancher, a geochemist at George Washington University, in Washington. "It's used in pacemakers and navigation beacons. Its particles are stopped by the skin, clothing, even a piece of paper." Fissionable uranium-235, which would be used for propulsion, is more toxic. But NASA says a space reactor isn't like an atom bomb — it can't explode. The worst effect of an acci dent on or near Earth would be scattered radioactive dust, which would be harmful only if breathed in. "We will need presidential approval to launch nuclear material," Newhouse pointed out. "We have to think of safety up front." Lighten Your Loan Reduce your monthly student loan payment by up to 50% it#: nPi# Lock in an interest rate as low as 2 0 c o/ * - x n /q Make your payment through automatic direct debit and get a 0 * »ZD /o interest rate reduction. k and make just one monthly student loan payment. After your first 48 consecutive monthly on-time payments get a 1.00%' interest rate reduction Important information about your student loans It’s easy to consolidate all your student loans—including Federal Direct Student Loans. Just gather all your student loan information (lender names, current balances and interest rates—estimates are OK). 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