Welcome to another article of Gimmick Command Periodically! Today’s article covers NASA’s Nuclear Rocket Engines and safety alerts/advisories for the 2017 Solar Eclipse.
- NASA’s Nuclear Rocket Engines
NASA has announced that development of Nuclear-powered rockets is underway. Presently, chemical rockets burning liquid hydrogen with liquid oxygen are the current, predominant means of manned and unmanned rockets achieving orbit and flights to the moon (not performed since 1972). These are prohibitive to taking manned crews to distances beyond Earth’s Moon due to the length of time and supplies needed (e.g. fuel, oxygen, food, etc).
Nuclear powered rockets would reduce the time to get to Mars by at least 2/3 or more, reducing the amount of supplies needed to visit the Red Planet.
Nuclear rockets have a longer lasting thrust time and the dangers of radiation are non-existent in deep space. Russia has also announced a similar plan for it’s space program.
- The 2017 Solar Eclipse
On August 21st, the first full Solar Eclipse to be observed solely on the Continental US since 1918 will occur. It is scheduled to occur between 1:30 and 2:00 PM EST (or 11:30AM to 12:00 PM MST).
Health advisories have been issued for people in or near the areas of totality.
The advisory to viewers is to use special filters and glasses sold at stores (NOTE: quantities may be limited) when viewing it to avoid eye-retinal damage from the brightness of the sun as the moon approaches totality (see picture above for details).
Another option is to purchase Shade #14 welding goggles for viewing.
With these, health officials advise viewers to not look directly at the sun, but put on the glasses while looking down and away from the sun before looking at it and when done, looking away from the sun before taking the glasses off.
Looking at the sun during a partial eclipse can cause permanent eye-retina damage or blindness and may not be immediately noticed because there are no pain receptors in those portions of the eyes.
Finally, health administrators also mention bringing plenty of water to drink and staying cool if caught in large traffic jams headed towards the area of totality.
Heavy traffic in and near the swath of totality from Oregon through South Carolina is expected, and travelers are urged to plan accordingly.
For The Great Galactic Space Gimmick, I’m Gimmick Commander Ben Faltinowski! 🙂
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