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Mars Curiousity rover radiation



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 5th 13, 09:57 AM posted to sci.space.history
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Default Mars Curiousity rover radiation

How close can an astronaut get to Curiousity without receiving
too much radiation from its plutonium?
  #2  
Old January 5th 13, 11:06 PM posted to sci.space.history
Bob Haller
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Default Mars Curiousity rover radiation

On Jan 5, 11:51*am, Fred J. McCall wrote:
wrote:
How close can an astronaut get to Curiousity without receiving
too much radiation from its plutonium?


You could safely have sex with the thing if you really wanted to.

--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
*territory."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * --G. Behn


fred knows that from experience
  #3  
Old January 6th 13, 03:33 AM posted to sci.space.history
Greg \(Strider\) Moore
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Default Mars Curiousity rover radiation

"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
...

bob haller wrote:

On Jan 5, 11:51 am, Fred J. McCall wrote:
wrote:
How close can an astronaut get to Curiousity without receiving
too much radiation from its plutonium?

You could safely have sex with the thing if you really wanted to.


fred knows that from experience


I've worked with nuclear material and such things, Bobbert. Have you?
Your greatest acceptable risk is a toner spill...


Insults aside Bob, Fred is right. It's an alpha-emitter. Put a piece of
paper between you and it, and you're fine.

(hell, I've wanted a Pu-238 water heater for awhile. But for some reason
the government doesn't seem to want to let me have one. :-)


--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net

  #5  
Old January 7th 13, 01:17 AM posted to sci.space.history
Brad Guth[_3_]
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Default Mars Curiousity rover radiation

On Jan 6, 3:21*am, wrote:
On Saturday, January 5, 2013 9:51:27 AM UTC-7, Fred J. McCall wrote:
wrote:


How close can an astronaut get to Curiousity without receiving
too much radiation from its plutonium?


You could safely have sex with the thing if you really wanted to.


Thank you for saving me the embarrassment of having to ask my real question.

Now, regarding the spacesuit....


Actually a somewhat greater life element of thorium is even better,
and a whole lot safer as well as cheaper, although you'd need a 2
meter sphere of that heavy stuff in order to do any real good of
safely heating things up, plus a little plutonium on the side for the
initial jump-start.

As long as the plutonium fueled RTG is physically contained in
something that's not going to degrade or physically fall apart, it's
about as failsafe as silly putty. However, you should never have more
than 10 kg of that plutonium stuff in any one confined place.

 




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