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What happened to Pluto
Message
From
15/09/2006 08:50:36
Hilmar Zonneveld
Independent Consultant
Cochabamba, Bolivia
 
General information
Forum:
Politics
Category:
Other
Miscellaneous
Thread ID:
01153516
Message ID:
01154038
Views:
9
>you could also use an ion drive or solar sails
>~M
>
>>
>>The distance Sun-Pluto is around 40 AU (40 Astronomical Units, i.e., 40 times the distance Sun-Earth). That means that for any hypothetical inhabitant or visitor of Pluto, the Sun would seem 1/1600 as bright as for an inhabitant on Earth. For a start, that means it's really cold over there, apart from being dark. Also, spacecraft can most likely no longer use solar energy, and must instead use nuclear reactors.

The ion drive would still require energy.

Solar sails would require the rays of the Sun.

Mainly, I was thinking about satisfying the need of energy on-board, not for propulsion. Of course, a craft may need both.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
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