[ RadSafe ] Mission to Mars

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Hello Again,
 
      This is from:   _jpreisig at aol.com_ (mailto:jpreisig at aol.com)    .
 
      Dr. Raabe is probably right in that early  missions to Mars will be 
chemically propelled.
 
      Then a less uptight country like China will  beat us to Mars (a ma
nned mission) using a nuclear
propelled spacecraft, in tandem with a chemically propelled liftoff from  
Earth.  One could assemble the
reactor spaceship from parts sent to the international space station.   
Then launch that bad boy
spaceship.
 
      Once the shuttle program ends, NASA  scientists and engineers will 
tire of twiddling their thumbs, and
will start to get going on a nuclear propelled spacecraft, as suggested by  
the professor from 
IIT.
 
      Glory be, I had forgotten about fast neutron  reactors.  Fast 
neutrons and enriched Uranium or
Plutonium could lead to a one way Mars travel time of less than 2  
months???!!!!  Whoa.
Star trek, here we come.
 
      I am not too familiar with what happened  with the fire (and 
plutonium) at Rocky Flats.
I think remediation there went on for quite some time.  Hope the fire  
doesn't affect Los Alamos.
Did terrorists set these fires???
 
      Goodness, Americium on US car air  filters???  (Americium in my Maypo 
or Grape Nuts
breakfast cereal).  My heavens, isn't Americium considerably heavier  than 
air?  Does it actually
get to the USA from Japan or is it here from bomb testing way back  when????
 
      NaI detectors for gamma spectrometry ---  hmmmm, only if there is no 
Ge detector around????
 
     Nice internal dosimetry job at Brookhaven for  someone right now.  See 
their web site.
 
 
      Be good.  Regards,   Joseph  R. (Joe) Preisig, PhD