What is the fastest way to put trash into the Sun?

[willpittenger]

Two problems with your points:<li>Engine failures would cause major trouble<li>The craft would be out there for centuries before the half-life expires. So your craft might have an unplanned encounter with a planet ... sending the waste back into the solar system.</li></li> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Once it's outside of the solar system proper, an impact with a planet is not going to send the waste back to the solar system.<br /><br />I'm sure the plan would be to avoid all known planets until exceeding solar system escape velocity. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Please reread Calli's post. She was talking about a craft in an orbit similar to that used by Ulysses. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Sorry, I thought you were talking about her point 2, which referred to craft reaching solar system escape velocity. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Not relevant. Even if we were talking about escape velocity, if you lose an engine (or just fails to fire correctly) or your navigation system fails, you won't go where you wanted to go. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Once you reach escape velocity, it makes no difference if an engine or navigations fails. You are still leaving the solar system.<br /><br />that's what escape velocity means <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Do you normally stumble all over what people tell you? I was suggesting such a problem might happen <font color="yellow"><b><i>BEFORE</i></b></font>reaching escape velocity. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Actually, as usual, what you were suggesting was not clear. <br />I will go back to following your previous request that I not respond to your posts. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[jimfromnsf]

your point is just as irrelevant, the rocket could blow up on the pad, so losing engine or navigation is meaningless

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Not relevant. Even if we were talking about escape velocity, if you lose an engine (or just fails to fire correctly) or your navigation system fails, you won't go where you wanted to go. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />That's just as true if you're planning on chucking the stuff into the Sun, so unless you want to abandon the entire concept of launching hazardous material away from EArth, you're pretty much stuck with that hazard.<br /><br />However, as you rightly point out, it's a biggie. If Cassini earned protests all over the world just for making a gravity-assist flyby of Earth with its small amount of plutonium on board, how much more for dumping large amounts of radioactive waste? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>