• teft@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The big problem with space is overheating. Space may be cold but there is no way to get rid of that heat except for radiators. Convection doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

      • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Right, but conduction does work on the moon. You have the ground as a giant heatsink. While the surface does get pretty hot in daylight, I am guessing that heat doesn’t go very deep so you could probably bury your cooling lines.

        It just requires humans up there to dig and bury the cooling lines.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Only at night.

      The lunar exosphere is too skimpy to trap or spread the Sun’s energy, so differences between sunlit and shadowed areas on the Moon are extreme. Temperatures near the Moon’s equator can spike to 250°F (121°C) in daylight, then plummet after nightfall to -208°F (-133°C).

      https://science.nasa.gov/moon/weather-on-the-moon/

      Which sounds like a pretty big challenge for a nuclear reactor. Maybe they only plan to put them on the poles?