Ever feel guilty when dropping nuke engine on planet?

[enroger]

Especially Kerbin, call me a treehugger... I even feel bad when dropping them on Duna or Eve, the scene of radiation fallout is on the back of my head. What do you guys think?

[Kuu Lightwing]

Yeah, NERVA is too awesome to just destroy it like that...

[Xavven]

Especially Kerbin, call me a treehugger... I even feel bad when dropping them on Duna or Eve, the scene of radiation fallout is on the back of my head. What do you guys think?

Yeah, on Kerbin it's a bad thing because it can harm life on the planet. On other bodies, not so much. They are already completely hostile to life, and those without an atmosphere and magnetic field have been hit by coronal mass ejections for billions of years. Your puny Nerv engine is nothing compared to space weather.

[Tourist]

I don't think I've ever dropped a NERVA on a planet..... well, not deliberately. I think I may have lost one in Jools atmosphere, but I tend to think the radiation a NERVA would create is a drop in the ocean compared the rads Jool must give out (ie based on it being like Jupiter).

But yeah, I'd feel funny dropping one on Kerbin... maybe even the other atmospheric planets.

I tend to use them as part of reusable "tow-trucks", and on a few, long abandoned probes, floating aimlessly.

[Special Agent Sigvan]

I pretend I dropped them on my enemies.

[KerbMav]

I tend to deposit them in a crater on Minmus.

[r4pt0r]

I make sure they hit hard enough to disappear.

What you can't see can't hurt you, right?

[ShadowZone]

Yeah me too. I even try to avoid using RTGs. Just because

[problemecium]

No, because I never do it ;P

And not out of guilt so much as cheapness - nuclear engines are expensive! The only way I ever allow them to touch the ground is when accompanied by a generous complement of parachutes.

[EwingKang]

I pretend I dropped them on my enemies.

HeHe great idea.

Still better not be so it in real life.

[Kryten 2X4B 523P]

Nope - I figure that if theres life present it'll increase the mutation rate, and may one day result in an intelligent species.

[Scotius]

I don't drop atomic engines anywhere. They are too expensive, difficult to get to space and too useful when put in their natural habitat of Deep Space

[Javster]

I would, but Kerbals have no civilisation visible so it wouldn't harm them

[SpaceChipmunk]

If they just have to be dropped, which I don't like to have to do, I make sure it is in Solar orbit. worst case it comes back some day in the future, just unlikely to ever see it again!

[eddiew]

Nervas are a transfer engine anyway, so they're much more likely to get dropped onto Duna than they are onto Kerbin. Their power:weight makes them quite unfavourable for use as a mid-stage engine that you'd kick off before circularising.

Maybe I'd feel a bit bad on Laythe, but not any of the dead worlds for sure

[ColourOfFire]

I never drop them, usually they are on a dockable stage that stays in orbit, gets refueled and goes for more missions.

[KerikBalm]

radiation a NERVA would create is a drop in the ocean compared the rads Jool must give out (ie based on it being like Jupiter).

*sigh* Jupiter does not emit radiation (at least at worrysome levels, the radiation concerns for spacecraft are not due to radiation emitted from Jupiter)

Its magnetic field is massive, and captures solar radiation, in the same way Earth's does.

Its like the Van allen radiation belts around Earth.... but.... much bigger.

You should also note the distinction between radioactive particles, and radiation.

Any radiation would be blocked by the atmosphere of Laythe, or at least the first meter of liquid (water).

In contrast, a nuke impact would spread long lived radioactive particles, that would diffuse throughout the ocean, ad emit radiation in places that would never be affected by Jool radiation belts.

As for the strength of Jools belts... that depends on the strength of its magnetic field, the strength of the solar wind given out by kerbol, distance from the star (proportionately nearly the same as Jupiter).

Maybe its radiation belt is only about as strong as Saturn's.

Its after all, simply a "gas giant" analogue... Laythe has more similarities to Saturn's moon Titan (at least: surface liquid, significant atmosphere).

Saturn's radiation belts are not so strong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn#Magnetosphere

Saturn has an intrinsic magnetic field that has a simple, symmetric shape – a magnetic dipole. Its strength at the equator – 0.2 gauss (20 µT) – is approximately one twentieth of that of the field around Jupiter and slightly weaker than Earth's magnetic field. As a result Saturn's magnetosphere is much smaller than Jupiter's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Saturn#Radiation_belts

Saturn has relatively weak radiation belts, because energetic particles are absorbed by the moons and particulate material orbiting the planet.[45] The densest (main) radiation belt lies between the inner edge of the Enceladus gas torus at 3.5 Rs and the outer edge of the A Ring at 2.3 Rs.

...

The saturnian radiation belts are generally much weaker than those of Jupiter and do not emit much microwave radiation (with frequency of a few Gigahertz). Estimates shows that their decimetric radio emissions (DIM) would be impossible to detect from the Earth.[48] Nevertherless the high energy particles cause weathering of the surfaces of the icy moons and sputter water, water products and oxygen from them.

We know nothing about Jool's magnetosphere. Maybe space around it isn't so much worse than the space around Kerbin (which is closer to the sun, where the solar wind is more intense)

Edited May 22, 2015 by KerikBalm

[Vaporo]

So I take it that you don't like the nuclear powered asparagus staged Tylo lander that I used in my Jool-5 mission?

[dryer_lint]

I only feel guilty when I make a bomber in the SPH and load it with a NERVA...

[LordFjord]

Guilty? Nope. And in my own view, Kerbals are immune to radiation anyway. As well as to low snack levels, thirst, boredom, ...

[KerikBalm]

So I take it that you don't like the nuclear powered asparagus staged Tylo lander that I used in my Jool-5 mission?

http://i.imgur.com/5Y1rRSk.png

I don't like it because....... LV-Ns have a terrible TWR, why would you use them for a Tylo landing....

There are other much better engines.

That is so mass inefficient to have a 2.25 ton fuel tank for a 2.25 (now 3) ton engine....

If you just removed the LV-Ns and put LV-909s on it, it would alreayd be much better (an LV-N may be ok for the core stages)

[Red Iron Crown]

I would feel bad dropping an LV-N anywhere, but not because "OMG nukular!" They're expensive, heavy and vacuum-optimized, so I tend to put them in orbital tugs and reuse them.

[WinkAllKerb'']

Recycling and reuse things is bad RIC xDr *pun-a-ton* seriously ; )

[WWEdeadman]

I actually never really thought about it much. Would be nice to impose a rule on oneself though, to either leave them in space forever once they left Kerbin, or bring them back to Kerbin for a safe recovery. You of course could also make nuclear transfer stages reuseable in the first place. Just park in orbit, refuel, reuse.

[SemiaCloud]

I recover them and deposit them in Kerbol orbit.