Russia and China to Build a Nuclear Plant on the Moon.

[vk6zgo]

I would've thought solar panels were the obvious choice on the moon, though given the roughly 14 day/14 night cycle, you'd need sufficient battery capacity to sustain operations during the night.

The moon doesn't rotate, so no night or day.

[wilfred]

Fortunately I just watched XKCD video about nuclear submarines in space.

[vad]

I would've thought solar panels were the obvious choice on the moon, though given the roughly 14 day/14 night cycle, you'd need sufficient battery capacity to sustain operations during the night.

The moon doesn't rotate, so no night or day.

The Moon does in fact rotate in sync with its orbit around the Earth, resulting in a day on the Moon lasting about 29 Earth days.

[MT]

What about a heat exchange power plant of some sort? In full sunshine, surface reach +127°C for 13,5 days. Then -173°C inside a crater for 13,5 days. One big azz peltier plate?

[MT]

9 years ago Kirk said Chinese spends hundreds of millions of USD into Thorium molten salt reactors, vastly in excess to what west put into the research, perhaps a clue they have something.
https://youtu.be/xBmk7t5K35A?t=2720

Kirk on anti nuclear everything green, save the planet, no CO2 , eat bugz, be happy people.
https://youtu.be/xBmk7t5K35A?t=3255

[Circlotron]

What about a heat exchange power plant of some sort? In full sunshine, surface reach +127°C for 13,5 days. Then -173°C inside a crater for 13,5 days. One big azz peltier plate?

Or Stirling engine.

[Andy Chee]

I would've thought solar panels were the obvious choice on the moon, though given the roughly 14 day/14 night cycle, you'd need sufficient battery capacity to sustain operations during the night.

The moon doesn't rotate, so no night or day.

You're correct, the moon does not rotate, hence we see the same side of the moon from earth.

However you're also incorrect, the moon does indeed experience night and day.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Lunation_animation_November_2009.gif

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_day

[tszaboo]

It is certainly doable. My previous comment wasn't an endorsement of western safety standards.  In the west we are trending towards finding that a one in a million chance of someone getting a hangnail is unacceptable.  People in the US are currently going crazy over a vacuum thermos that has a lead seal that is not externally accessible, and claiming a billion dollars of emotional damage from being in the airplane that lost a window.

Im fine with fining Boeing a billion dollars for the series of blunders they have been doing in the past few years.

Personally, I would rather see the billion dollars spent on fixing the problems rather than enriching lawyers and soothing the bruised psyches of people who suffered no real damage, but whatever floats your boat.

The problem is likely their DEI hiring policy, and you just have to hit them again and again hard until they fold or go out of business.

It is certainly doable. My previous comment wasn't an endorsement of western safety standards.  In the west we are trending towards finding that a one in a million chance of someone getting a hangnail is unacceptable.  People in the US are currently going crazy over a vacuum thermos that has a lead seal that is not externally accessible, and claiming a billion dollars of emotional damage from being in the airplane that lost a window.

Im fine with fining Boeing a billion dollars for the series of blunders they have been doing in the past few years.

Boeing will pass the costs to airlines, which will then pass them on to consumers. If Boeing can't make airlines foot the bill for the extra costs, taxpayers will have to bail out the "too large to fail" Boeing, leading to higher inflation and everyone paying the price. Are there any winners in this mess? You bet - litigation lawyers.

They work with minimum margins and airlines will just switch to Airbus if that occurs regularly. It's already a huge blunder for them as well.

[switchabl]

Im fine with fining Boeing a billion dollars for the series of blunders they have been doing in the past few years.

Personally, I would rather see the billion dollars spent on fixing the problems rather than enriching lawyers and soothing the bruised psyches of people who suffered no real damage, but whatever floats your boat.

The problem is likely their DEI hiring policy, and you just have to hit them again and again hard until they fold or go out of business.

Yes, it is well known that both Philip M. Condit and Jim McNerney were only hired as CEOs because Boeing adopted McDonnell Douglas' DEI policy after the merger. /s

[SiliconWizard]

What about a heat exchange power plant of some sort? In full sunshine, surface reach +127°C for 13,5 days. Then -173°C inside a crater for 13,5 days. One big azz peltier plate?

How about we stop screwing up billions of people on Earth before building power plants on the moon? And I'm not a hippie either.

[Bud]

Can you even build anything on a celestial body, as that would imply you claim property rights to a part of the celestial body, and there are international treaties saying celestial bodies cant be anyone's property.

[SiliconWizard]

Can you even build anything on a celestial body, as that would imply you claim property rights to a part of the celestial body, and there are international treaties saying celestial bodies cant be anyone's property.

It's a bit complex: https://phys.org/news/2024-02-moon.html

[shapirus]

At least it will be a safe distance away.

If it manages to make it past the orbit.

[Njk]

The Moon nuclear facility is excellent plan indeed. Not sure about China, but in Russia the nuclear lobby is very strong and powerful. As usual, that'll be a government initiative and the things will be done in not the most efficient way. But the other governments will be forced to build similar installations there out of competition, perhaps in more creative ways. Consider the latest trend, a small modular reactors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor. The smaller the better so more units can be sold. The sweet dream of that guys is to plant their toys under each kindergarten providing us with clean, safe and reliable energy source. If that guys will be provided with the opportunity to pursue their goals elsewhere (e.g. on the Moon) that'll be effectively good for all.

I'm not sure we need more energy. Every living thing demonstrates the capability to exist with available energy sources. The problem is definitely not on the supply side. More energy often creates more problems. E.g., in Alaska and some places in Nothern California, it's close to misdemeanor to dump the food leftovers to outside garbage buckets, because of the bears. The bears are happy with the extra food, so they're growing in numbers making the situation worse. It's not the only example. The UHD IV, the "big battery for everyone" scam, etc., etc.

So if all those with inflated ambitions and raised expectations will migrate to the Moon (taking their breed with them) many will be happy just by not seeing them here. Although Mars seems a better crusade target because it's more far away so more chances all the conquistadors will die off there and never be back. By the way, there must be a plenty of gold.

[MT]

What about a heat exchange power plant of some sort? In full sunshine, surface reach +127°C for 13,5 days. Then -173°C inside a crater for 13,5 days. One big azz peltier plate?

How about we stop screwing up billions of people on Earth before building power plants on the moon? And I'm not a hippie either.

Im trying to come up with serious solutions to solve a serious problem for billions of starving people on earth , your windmill and solar road solutions in space is not very helpful!

[vad]

The sweet dream of that guys is to plant their toys under each kindergarten providing us with clean, safe and reliable energy source.

I doubt that our kindergarten owners are willing to put a miniature Chernobyl under their facilities, and I also doubt that local codes would allow that either. You know, we do not have comrade Putin to command what kindergarten should do in their sweet dreams.

[SiliconWizard]

What about a heat exchange power plant of some sort? In full sunshine, surface reach +127°C for 13,5 days. Then -173°C inside a crater for 13,5 days. One big azz peltier plate?

How about we stop screwing up billions of people on Earth before building power plants on the moon? And I'm not a hippie either.

Im trying to come up with serious solutions to solve a serious problem for billions of starving people on earth , your windmill and solar road solutions in space is not very helpful!

They're not very helpful on Earth either, but that doesn't stop us.

[Andy Chee]

Im trying to come up with serious solutions to solve a serious problem for billions of starving people on earth , your windmill and solar road solutions in space is not very helpful!

A human colony on Antarctica would be a better solution than a human colony on the Moon. 

[snarkysparky]

Why?

[MT]

What about a heat exchange power plant of some sort? In full sunshine, surface reach +127°C for 13,5 days. Then -173°C inside a crater for 13,5 days. One big azz peltier plate?

How about we stop screwing up billions of people on Earth before building power plants on the moon? And I'm not a hippie either.

Im trying to come up with serious solutions to solve a serious problem for billions of starving people on earth , your windmill and solar road solutions in space is not very helpful!

They're not very helpful on Earth either, but that doesn't stop us.

Exactly.

[tszaboo]

What about a heat exchange power plant of some sort? In full sunshine, surface reach +127°C for 13,5 days. Then -173°C inside a crater for 13,5 days. One big azz peltier plate?

How about we stop screwing up billions of people on Earth before building power plants on the moon? And I'm not a hippie either.

Im trying to come up with serious solutions to solve a serious problem for billions of starving people on earth , your windmill and solar road solutions in space is not very helpful!

They're not very helpful on Earth either, but that doesn't stop us.

Solar road would probably work quite well on the moon, considering the 1/6th weight of everything, no dust because no wind, and the general lack of cars (3 in total).

[soldar]

The moon doesn't rotate, so no night or day.

Of course the moon rotates. Once a month.

The dark side of the moon is a music album, not any description of reality.

[bitwelder]

Hey, nobody remembers what happened on September 13th, 1999? 

[Artz]

When China figures out how to land something on the moon in a few decades, russian scientists will just let the reactor core overheat and irradiate half the moon.

[strawberry]

one nuclear reactor is leaving solar system
high power reactor cooling in space will be biggest challenge because there is no way to dissipate excess heat
ISS use ammonia evaporator with ~70kW cooling capacity(i think)
most feasible colony options Total Recall