
Small Nuclear Reactors for Mars - bra-ket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLE5YFuCmhw
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peter_d_sherman
Related:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilopower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilopower)

>"Kilopower is an experimental project aimed at producing new nuclear reactors
for space travel.[1][2] The project started in October 2015, led by NASA and
the DoE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).[3] As of 2017, the
Kilopower reactors were intended to come in four sizes, able to produce from

 _one to ten kilowatts of electrical power (1-10 kWe) continuously for twelve
to fifteen years.[4][5]_

The fission reactor uses uranium-235 to generate heat that is carried to the
Stirling converters with passive sodium heat pipes.[6] In 2018, positive test
results for the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY)
demonstration reactor were announced.[7]"

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ncmncm
Nukes are more practical for a Venus hab, because you can just hang one a
half-mile away and below, unshielded, and not even worry about leaks. Just
hang your pile at the bottom of a tall polyprop fabric tube, heating up air,
with a windmill turbine at the top.

You hold all this stuff up with balloons. Venus surface days are hella long,
but the cloud tops blast around at 400 mph, so a cloud-top day is like, what,
60 hours maybe?

Polyprop because sulfuric acid clouds, you know.

~~~
ncmncm
Actually more like 100-120 hours. But who's counting?

