/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15632614
> We could have had a Mars sized world at Earths Trojan point if Jupiter hadn't fucked it up
reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

>>15138616
Don't need fuel from Earth, just mine thorium and let radiation transmute it
>Ultra-safe nuclear thermal rockets using lunar-derived fuel
>A solution is to harvest fertile thorium on the lunar surface, then transmute it into fissile uranium using the gamma ray fog which pervades the deep sky. It is only at lunar orbit, at the very edge of cislunar space, that the Earth-launched machine becomes a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR). Thorium is not abundant, but can be concentrated by mechanical methods because of its very high specific density relative to the bulk of lunar regolith. Thorium dioxide (ThO2) has an extremely high melting point, such that skull crucible heating can be used to separate it from supernatant magma. When filled into a graphite-lined beryllium container (brought from Earth) and set out on the lunar surface, high-energy gamma rays will liberate neutrons from the Be. After moderation by the graphite, these thermal neutrons are captured by the thorium nucleus, which is transmuted into protactinium (Pa91). This element can be extracted using the THOREX process, and will then decay naturally into U-233 within two or three lunar days. The uranium is oxidized and packed into fuel pellets, ready to be inserted into a non-radioactive machine, which now becomes an NTR.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468896721000604

>>14876011
Its consistent with QED goober, the only arguments are its effects on causality.