Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: The sun as a trashcan (was : Plutonium)
Message-ID: <1988Aug29.025806.1669@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1255@netmbx.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 88 02:58:06 GMT

In article <1255@netmbx.UUCP> alderaan@netmbx.UUCP (Thomas Cervera) writes:
>If we can send spacecrafts to the inner planets of our solar system,
>I think, it must be possible to let something like that crash into the
>sun, or not ?

Getting to the Sun is harder than getting to the inner planets.  The
problem is velocity, not distance.  It is necessary to nearly cancel
Earth's orbital velocity to put a payload into an orbit that intersects
the Sun.  This is beyond the capabilities of current Western rockets
for any useful payload.  Energia might be able to put perhaps 100 kg
into the Sun, with suitable upper stages.  [This is a very rough guess
based on some recollections of Saturn V performance examples.]  So it
is marginally possible but ruinously expensive.

>But if it's possible, why don't we send all our dangerous (radioactive)
>garbage to the sun ? ...

It's too expensive and the quantities are beyond current launch systems.
Current launch systems also are not reliable enough for such dangerous
cargo.

Actually, if one must get the stuff off Earth, a better approach might
be to crash it into some selected crater on the Moon.  This would be
a good deal cheaper and easier, and would permit recovery if the stuff
later turned out to be useful.

>At this time, U.S.A. and USSR destroy their expensive short range missles
>Why don't they modify them to be able to leave the earth's gravity
>field ? The payload could be Pt or other dangerous stuff ...

[Two nits:  these are medium-range missiles, not short-range ones, and
the chemical symbol for plutonium is Pu, not Pt.]

The payloads would be very limited, since these are not large missiles.
In addition, the current treaty does not permit this use, and requires
destruction of the missiles quite soon.  In theory the treaty could be
amended, but nobody wants to mess with what is (correctly) seen as a
major triumph of arms control.

The idea of using missiles as space launchers will be considerably more
interesting if agreement is reached on major reductions in ICBM forces.
-- 
Intel CPUs are not defective,  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
they just act that way.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu