[DIYbio] Re: I had idea on biospheres.

"On every launch ... for every RTG .... " That sounds like there were much. There haven't been, and there won't be. Unfortunately, Obama has made the energy-departement stop the production of RTG by not providing the money needed.


And yeah, for high-value missions you have to take som risk. You said you're familiar with the rocket equation.

The shielding adds mass, which has to be taken into orbit, and the accelerated to escape velocity, and then further to travel speed (if electrical propulsion, which we don't have for human missions any time soon, then some km/sec more). And if you want to return it, you'll get still much more fuel-need.

If the RTG hits, it will more than 70% likely hit water.


For RTG-powered missions each 5 years you can risk low shielding, if you in return take the most reliable rocket. But that's just my opinion.




It seems to me kind of like a belief - thing. You can say, you believe Mars is very very low in water at the equator, I say it's *relatively* much there. (In the sense of a bit is there. )
Yeah, Curiosity could have just landed in a dryer region. We just don't know, as long as it hasn't visited many places to investigate the ammount of water.