https://nitter.1d4.us/NASAJPL/status/1669056455901851648

Great filter critics: :picard-excited:

Great filter adherents :blob-on-fire:

  • 0karin728 [any]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I figure by the time we're able to build a base on Enceladus we'll have fusion, and hydrogen is basically free, plenty of places to get fuel without having to drill through miles of ice and then haul it through an ocean like 3x as deep as Earth's

    • iridaniotter [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Fission fuels can be used for thermoelectric generators (low energy, usually very simple, lasts a very long time, used for deep space probes) as well as "small" reactors that can fit in vehicles or power a town. Fusion requires such high energies so the reactor designs are very big and the prospects for miniaturization are low. Cities will probably be powered by fusion one day, but I'm confident fission will continue to have a healthy niche.

      • 0karin728 [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, fair. I would expect fusion to be substantially miniaturized from current designs by the time anyone is thinking about going to enceladus, since that's probably like a century or two off, but I can definitely imagine a world where that isn't the case.

        Thermoelectric generators aren't actually fission reactors, but they're crazy cheap and ideal for space travel because they require almost 0 upkeep