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From: jgk@speech2.cs.cmu.edu (Joe Keane)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: The sun as a trashcan (was : Plutonium)
Message-ID: <2821@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 29 Aug 88 01:05:09 GMT
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In article <2818@pt.cs.cmu.edu> dep@cat.cmu.edu (David Pugh) writes:
>Unfortunately, it is much harder to drop something into the sun than
>is it have it orbit Mercury or Venus.  Someone mentioned that the
>required delta-V was about 18 kilometers per second.

I don't have the necessary data handy, but it should be possible to
send something to the sun by shooting it near Mercury (or maybe
Venus).  You might have to do some boosting near the planet, but this
is much more efficient than trying to do a drop (like in _Aliens_).

>The easiest way to get rid of nuclear waste would probably be to
>use hard land it on the moon. Would it be possible to build a
>railgun/mass-driver/etc. which could launch small (1kg) payloads
>to crash land on the moon?

Please don't do this!

--Joe
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