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  1. WI: ICBM's/SLBM's armed with Thermobaric or "Rods from God's" kinetic warheads?

    You could lift KEP weapons with modern SLBMs or ICBMs but they would have no military significance since the KEPs would have a mass approximating the nuclear weapons they would be replacing on the final stage but with no nuclear bang on the receiving end. For a KEP to have the sort of impact...

  2. For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

    They wouldn't be making nukes on the moon either. Too many steps between making the Pu and producing and actual weapon to do it in the restricted confines of Jamestown.

  3. For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

    Nope. Assuming that Pathfinder had the propellant capacity to make the lunar run - its not going to need Pu for refuel. It might could use a topping up of LH2 cryogen/slush. It probably wouldn't have a Pu core - the designs contemplated for PLUTO, NERVA, and ROVER used highly enriched U235...

  4. For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

    Its a poor plot device. By the 1980s - Pu stocks in the US already produced for the arsenal - was measured in the tons. Similarly, for the Soviet Union. Additional - off world - production was just not needed. And, would have presented too many additional issues (headaches) for the US in...

  5. For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

    While your point is true I simply don't see how the failure of the Jamestown reactor - (even with its "secret" additional core is probably pretty small) - would pose the threat that is being suggested to veins of ice many many 10s of meters underground in volcanic vent systems. The failure of...

  6. For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

    Good point since since its hardly pure glacier ice and the melt is probably contaminated with entrained lunar dusts.

  7. For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

    What arms limitation treaties put limits on Pu production? Nothing was ever mentioned in the show and there was no such thing in OTL to my knowledge. Pu production is a very specialized nuclear process that requires a limited time of irradiation of the Uranium fuel. Leave the fuel in core too...

  8. For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

    My guess is probably not - a failure of the reactor would have been a very local event - not something that would have contaminated many square kms of the lunar surface. And, certainly would not have propelled contaminants into the depths 10s of meters below the surface where the ice was...

  9. For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

    Pathfinder as a nuclear powered vehicle is a pretty big stretch. Pathfinder as an evolved shuttles design like the Venture Star and its linear aerospike engine would have have been far more acceptable. A nuclear shuttle just brings with it too much overhead. The shuttle would have to be...
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