/sci/ - Science & Math

>>4076457
very poorly i'd wager

>>4076434
it's like the 2075 version of fighting on the backs of bears

>>4076423
that's what i suspected. the real strength of RTGs is their fucking insane lifespan

>>4076397
yeeah, it'll probably be a case of
>one government pours a few billion into solar reflector satellites to melt the ice caps
>they forget about it for a few years
>some other government, or a few of them, start seeding modified algae for a few years over two or three missions
>they forget about it to
>a few decades pass
>excitement builds as the atmospheric density and oxygen levels start rising enough to use super hardy plantlife that can take the cold, some government drops them on the surface and parades it around
>another few decades
>repeat the process over another few decades with different governments and short lived corporations until plain old trees start getting deposited

>then every corporation ever starts jumping on a claim of land or resource or anything. exotic hotels, space zoos, you name it. mars turns into "rich-people-land"

>the government which made the solar reflectors takes all the credit

well, at least mars is green now i guess.

>>4076360
hey, i like cheetos
and yes it would be an entirely non corporate venture, as any potential gains would like 50 to 100 years away from initial seeding.

also for people suggesting genetic engineering of species? keep in mind that nature is the best genetic engineer, if we manage to add anything we'd have to take away other aspects of the organism. the best we can do it over-specialization, not "make it better"

>>4076373
honestly, some terraforming methods are much more grounded than....some of the stuff i see around here

>>4075913
i like the wacky idea put forth about grabbing an asteroid, putting it at mars' legrange point, boring out the center of it so some light gets in, putting a hard UV filter over said hole in the center, then slapping a nuclear reactor on there to produce a moderate EM field, which when pushed back by the solar wind, provides a decent pseudo-magnetic field for mars.

it wouldn't be perfect, but blocking most of the UV and maybe 30% of the solar wind would do WONDERS

>>4075890
this is why i'm not a fan of solar panels
radioactive decay is much more reliable

>>4072944
terraforming mars on a budget is entirely possible, it just takes a while.
by far the hardest step will be getting the atmospheric density high enough for algae to take root

>>4072804
i would buy
THE FUCK
out of this

and anyone who'd been to cape canaveral can tell you, nasa loves their merch.
but, i mean, i want to give them my money for an rc version of some of the rovers. a pathfinder model with an actual solar panel would be bitchin. why do you have my money nasa? why?

>>4071093
>uses an RTG
wait, for the entire thing?
i didn't think RTGs could put out that much juice, or does it store it up and only operate like 30 minutes a day

>>4071084
oh it's not that big calm down dude
>expand image
wait those are PEOPLE back there?
sweet jesus it's bigger than my pickup!

just imagine all the HARDWARE packed into that thing, OH BABY

>>4075307
>power grids are protected from solar storms now
oh, i didn't realize this. did they cook up some kind of exotic breaker that cuts connection in the case of too much incoming voltage?

good news; solar flares take a (relatively) long time to get here
as soon as a powerful enough one is detected, power lines can be disconnected from substations across the country to prevent any damage.

of course this would require a thoroughly understood emergency plan such that said disconnection takes less than 36 hours across the entire country.

small electronics are not at risk, since solar flares target large metallic structures (like power lines) since they're fantastic radio receivers. the little radio in your phone isn't very good at that, and can dissipate the energy as it arrives, no burn outs.

nuclear EMPs are another story, since all that compton electrons produced so quickly will overload small electronics, but leave power lines mostly intact

>>4022596
not that you mention it, no i suppose there isn't

>>4022525
ah, oh well

i'm not actually aware of any tripping programs that can crack tripcodes, just ones that generate them

unless someone just put "Phobos" into the desired text string of tripper+ and waited like a week for something similar to be spat out

>>4022461
well it sure looks great on paper, and the msre ran smoothly for 5 years off and on

but yes, it is at it's heart, untested on a commercial scale

>>4022400
oh and don't get me wrong, throium is probably going to be our best grid power source for the forseeable future.
i'm just saying, keep a level head

>>4022389
>>4022390
this is what i mean by silly...

thorium doesn't replace oil, it just offers a respectably cheaper and safer grid power source, replacing natural gas and coal and traditional nuclear

oil is still necessary for cars, but ELECTRIC CARS will be knocking on oil's door, not throium power. Granted, cheaper grid power makes electric vehicles more attractive to the average consumer

>Thorium will change the world just like the Tank changed warfare or the Plane changes travel
eeeh, thorium will enable a few things, but it's probably not the engine of change you think it is

can we all agree to be a little more reserved and realistic? overall?
>mfw futurism on /sci/

thorium threads on /sci/ tend to devolve into crazy futurism stuff too quickly.

can we just have a rule about not speculating on anything more than 15 years in the future?
things get silly too quickly otherwise

that's supposed to be stuxnet?
it would be more like a deer tick that latches onto your printer or something, and makes it print tons of pure black pages until it runs out of ink

>>4020107
the SMART grant was designed to cover those costs somewhat

too bad they killed it about a year ago

not quite
i'm a huge fan of automated systems that self-replicate and grow exponentially, but we're not quite there yet.

two trillion ten years from now? that's more like it. Technically, with a self replicating system, all you need to build is one or two, and you just wait for exponential growth to kick in.
as Einstein once said, the most powerful force in the universe is Compound Interest

>>3995007
>>3995018
i'd also like to bet money this was written by someone who fanatically pushes solar and wind power, claiming "they will get better" and "they will be grid viable"

and i guess nuclear power cannot advance or become better ever?

>>3995007
>Generation 3 reactor being built
>in finland
>costs soaring
i will be you money a decent bit of those soaring costs was due to court cases by NIMBYs