1 yr. ago • 96%

Scientists design nuclear fuel cells known as a Trisofuel, the size of poppy seeds, to live in space.

www.bbc.com Moon base: Bangor scientists design fuel to live in space

An energy source which could sustain life on the Moon for long periods has been designed by researchers.

51 comments

This is a bit of a tangent, but the damage that bigotry has done to human progress is staggering. The scientist leading the team is apparently a black Zimbabwean woman. Not so long ago, it would have been impossible for someone like that to lead a team, and that immense talent would have gone entirely to waste.

Think of all the highly intelligent people who were unable to go to university or perform to the best of their abilities because some racist moron assumed they were too stupid. Think of all the women who are scared off pursuing a scientific career to sexist BS.

Think how (overeducated) morons still run entire countries or huge companies, thanks to privilege they don't deserve, while at least one of the cleaners is twice as smart and a better human being than they'll ever be.

53
- “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” - Stephen Jay Gould
  
  46
  
  That’s an awesome quote, hadn’t seen it before.
  
  4
- https://mastodon.social/@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al/111021059217957193
  
  This thread is talking about the fact that 15-20% of the economic gains of the last 60 years or so are the result of decreasing acceptance of overt bigotry in the workplace.
  
  15
- Well said. We don’t talk about this very real byproduct of bigotry nearly enough. This is one of the best arguments in favor of affirmative action, imo.
  
  I’m genuinely curious to hear the opinions of the folks who are downvoting your comment.
  
  1
Sciencetits

53
Sciencetits

I hope this isn't how we refer to women in science.

(Ps you can edit titles on Lemmy)

20
- Sciencetits and Sciencedicks
  
  5
  
  Sciencetits : disease cures, Space travel and much more
  
  ScienceDicks : Petrol and plastic companies.
  
  the day we choose tits over dicks our society can progress.
  
  6
  
  Bathroom signs at the old trendy Space Bar
  
  2
This is the best summary I could come up with:

Bangor University has designed nuclear fuel cells, the size of poppy seeds, to produce the energy needed to sustain life there.

As space technology advances at a rapid pace, the BBC was given exclusive access to the Bangor University Nuclear Futures Institute's laboratory.

The Bangor team, which is a world leader on fuels, works with partners such as Rolls Royce, the UK Space Agency, Nasa and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US.

Earlier this month, India made a historic landing near the Moon's south pole with its robotic probe Chandrayaan-3.

One of the mission's major goals is to hunt for water-based ice which, scientists say, could support human habitation on the Moon in future.

The geopolitical author and journalist, Tim Marshall, said the breakthrough over fuel was a step towards a global race to the lunar south pole.

The original article contains 778 words, the summary contains 140 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

14
- yo thanks bro
  
  you comment in every post
  
  i admire your dedication.
  
  14
- Good bot
  
  4
- Bangor University has designed nuclear fuel cells, the size of poppy seeds, to produce the energy needed to sustain life there.
  
  I'll stick with beer and chips thanks
  
  1
It sounds like we're staring to catch up to the Fallout universe.

It would be nice to have one of those nuclear potatoes to run my house.

12
- Also can we get Nuka-Cola Quantum please?
  
  5
  
  I always thought Nukaa-Cola Quantum would taste like Baja Blast fresh from the soda machine from your local taco bell.
  
  4
Instead of using this on the moon, what is preventing us from putting this power source in a car and either powering the motor or constantly charging a battery?

11
- Because you don't want a fusion reaction happening under your butt. Trust me... If something goes wrong, it'll go terribly wrong.
  
  Leave fusion in billion dollars facilities continuously monitored for any minimal safety risk
  
  12
  
  Don’t you dare tell me what I don’t want in my butt!!! 😒
  
  9
- It depends heavily on the fuel used.
  
  See, some decay chains have gamma emitters in the line. Those are not good to have around people without several meters of lead, concrete, or water. All things that are a bit too heavy for a car.
  
  10
  
  Ahh, so unless we have a few meters of protection, we will die.
  
  That’s a good reason.
  
  7
- Public Interest
  
  Investment
  
  Safety
  
  Selfishness
  
  3
  
  I was about to say no one is stopping you from dying a gruesome gamma-radiaton induced death, but I would be wrong, because I now realize you're literally shitting on the very people whose job it is to prevent that from happening.
  
  So, I'm sorry I guess?
  
  5
  
  Oops!
  
  Shit
  
  Happened
  
  Again!
  
  3
The best kind

7
The reason cited for nuclear propulsion enabling us to get to places like Mars faster is wrong. It's not the amount of thrust, but the ability to use constant thrust longer (because we can fuel longer burns). It's why the plot device of the Epstein drive in The Expanse opened up the whole solar system - they can do a burn for days and use up very little fuel. We're nowhere near that, but nuclear would be far better than conventional rockets that have very limited burn time plus have heavy fuel to carry with them.

4
- the Epstein drive
  
  Very unfortunate name
  
  3
Plus, I suppose that the small size of the payload will make the potential for widespread radiation poisoning lower in case of an accident.

3
- Small reactors often don't actually have enough fuel to actually melt their containment. And I'm talking Small Modular Reactors in the low MW range.
  
  These pellets would be basically immune to anything even resembling a meltdown unless you had hundreds of them in one space.
  
  No, the risk when dealing with items this small is orphan source. i.e. the loss of a pellet into the wider world.
  
  Orphan source accidents are terrifying but also of very small scale. Usually one or two people who don't know what they've found and lose body parts to it, or just die.
  
  Orphan sources are almost always from improperly disposed of medical equipment. Including the single worst case I can think of.
  
  9
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=-k3NJXGSIIA
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
  
  2
  
  That was horrifying and so sad to watch. It also made me realise that most of us probably don't know enough about identifying nuclear contaminants.
  
  I feel like even if we think we know of nuclear contaminants, identifying it and procedures on what to do in these situations should really be compulsory education for everyone.
  
  1
- although nuclear technology is high risk and high reward.
  
  i think we should give it a chance who knows when thorium based reactors come along?
  
  3
  
  Still waiting on thorium and fusion reactors to be a thing. If nuclear is a necessity in the meanwhile, the least they can do is to build them in a place far away enough from the general population and natural resources, that way the containment zone in case of a breach would be a lesser loss.
  
  3
  
  It sure seems safer than fossil fuels.
  
  1
Sounds like a recipe for another Moonbase Alpha incident.
(from the Space: 1999 television series)

3
What is this article even on about? Is it talking about TRISO fuel? That's not something new (it'd be new if they were talking about a way of manufacturing TRISO particles efficiently/with fewer failed particles). Why are they spelling it as "trisofuel", I can't find anything online using that spelling that isn't this (rather empty) article or copy/paste versions.

2

You've viewed 51 comments.