I had the great fortune at one point to talk to one of the pilots of the modified B-36. His remark was that it was one of the quietest airplanes that he had ever flown. I imagine so... Apparantly whereever it went so did a radiation team AND armed troops... Robert Oler WB5MZO Houston TX >From: Joe <rs_joe@yahoo.com> >To: SeeSat-L@blackadder.lmsal.com >Subject: RE: satellites carrying atomic reactors >Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 08:12:32 -0700 (PDT) > > >>After this observation we continued to discuss about > >>different satellite topics and somehow it came up that > >>there are satellites with atomic reactors "up there" which > >>will decay in the atmosphere for sure. > >An experimental nuclear reactor power system, the SNAP 10A which used >thermoelectric power conversion, was launched by the United States in 1965 >and >worked satisfactorily for 43 days until shut down. It is now in a very >high >orbit where it will remain for hundreds of years. Except for that one case, >the >use of nuclear sources for powering spacecraft built and launched by the >United >States been limited to very low power (less than 1/2 kW) systems called >radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG). They do not use nuclear >reactor >heat sources. RTGs convert the heat generated by the decay of radioisotopes >to >electricity by using an array of thermocouples. Compared to a 1000-kilowatt >reactor RTG's are extremely small,simple and safe. The fuel source in all >U.S. >RTGs has been plutonium-238. > > >>Who knows, how many reactors are up there? >I'm not certain, but at last count I think it was about 48 RTG's. > > >>Embedded in what satellites? >not sure of them all, I'll have to look it up later. > > >>Any plans to bring them back safely? :-) > >Of the RTGs launched by the US, there have been three mission malfunctions >that >I know of involving spacecraft which carried a total of four RTGs. One of >these >occurred in 1964 before the full fuel containment policy was initiated. >This >was the SNAP 9A RTG aboard a malfunctioning Navy spacecraft and it burned >up in >the upper atmosphere as designed. Since 1964, the design philosophy of full >fuel containment has performed flawlessly in two mission failures involving >RTGs. One landed intact in the Pacific Ocean in 1968 after a Nimbus B >weather >satellite failed to reach orbit. The two generators were recovered and >their >fuel used in a subsequent mission. In 1970, the Apollo 13 lunar module >reentered the atmosphere and its RTG was jettisoned and fell intact into >the >Tonga Trench of the Pacific Ocean. In each case air and water samples taken >in >the reentry area indicate there was no release of radioactive material. > > >>How, in general, it was possible to solve the > >>(veeery heavy) radiation shielding which made > >>reactor driven aircrafts obsolete > >>(because they where too heavy to lift off...)? > >No country was ever able to develop a true atomic-powered aircraft. But a >nuclear plane of sorts did manage to fly, the NB-36H test airplane. Its >original B-36H airframe had been extensively modified, most notably with a >12-ton shielded crew capsule in the nose, a 4-ton lead disc shield in the >middle and a number of large air intake and exhaust holes to cool the >reactor >in the aft section. The reactor was a 1000-kilowatt design weighing 35,000 >pounds. Its operation was observed from the crew capsule by closed circuit >television. NB-36H flew with its radioactive cargo 47 times between 1955 >and >1957, and, although it did not power the airplane, the reactor provided >considerable data on the effects of radiation emitted during flight. The >test >plane was eventually decommissioned at Fort Worth in late 1957. > >Joe Hurley >42.669575 -073.685737 >(Don't spam me, these are just the coordinates geocode spit out at me.) >RS_Joe@yahoo.com > > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger >http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ > >----------------------------------------------------------------- >Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' >in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org >http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 24 2001 - 10:48:54 PDT