“We do anticipate having to deploy nuclear systems on the lunar surface."
  • femtech@midwest.social
    11·
    6 months ago

    That and solar. Have a few Small modular reactors. I think the other thing is energy storage. Batteries are heavy and wear out. Would be nice to have something that can be used long term.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      41·
      6 months ago

      I would bet that one of the long-term solutions are gonna be locally produced (that is, on the moon) kinetic storage devices like flywheels and weight shafts. You can store a shocking amount of energy in a big old rock lifted up on a cable by a couple hundred meters.

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
      6·
      6 months ago

      The most colossally stupid thing we could do as a species with space exploration is take our completely short sighted disregard for the environment around us and export that to the moon and other planets. Our hubris in not thinking ahead of the consequences of our actions for short term gain and profits is going to kill our entire species.

    • rbesfe@lemmy.ca
      5·
      6 months ago

      The steel contamination problem comes from nuclear bomb tests, not just the refining of radioactive materials. So long as no one nukes the moon, we’re fine.

      Plus, the contamination occurs from the air used when the steel is made, so unless you can find a way to run a blast furnace in a vacuum there’s no way to make uncontaminated steel even if you brought iron ore from the moon

        • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
          2·
          6 months ago

          More specifically I think it’s pre-WW2 scrap steel from underwater.

          Anything exposed to the atmosphere received some radiation but scrap steel from sunken ship are not contaminated.

        • teft@lemmy.world
          2·
          6 months ago

          We can still make radiation free metals. It’s just way more expensive than recovery of pre WW2 metals.

          Bringing a nuclear reactor to the moon wont contaminate the iron there unless you detonate the reactor near the surface and even then it will only contaminate the iron directly below the blast. The reason steel on earth is contaminated is because we use air that is contaminated with radionuclides in the manufacture of steel. No air on the moon means no contamination.

          Also the radiation has fallen pretty much back to background levels since we stopped atmospheric testing so modern steel is generally radiation free. Only the most sensitive steels need to be low background steel. Another 50 years or so and we should be back to baseline.