Send this to xkcd and we'll know how many tons of uranium are required to get it done
this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
341 points (99.7% liked)
NonCredibleDefense
7018 readers
504 users here now
A community for your defence shitposting needs
Rules
1. Be nice
Do not make personal attacks against each other, call for violence against anyone, or intentionally antagonize people in the comment sections.
2. Explain incorrect defense articles and takes
If you want to post a non-credible take, it must be from a "credible" source (news article, politician, or military leader) and must have a comment laying out exactly why it's non-credible. Low-hanging fruit such as random Twitter and YouTube comments belong in the Matrix chat.
3. Content must be relevant
Posts must be about military hardware or international security/defense. This is not the page to fawn over Youtube personalities, simp over political leaders, or discuss other areas of international policy.
4. No racism / hatespeech
No slurs. No advocating for the killing of people or insulting them based on physical, religious, or ideological traits.
5. No politics
We don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Stalinist, Baathist, or some other hot mess. Leave it at the door. This applies to comments as well.
6. No seriousposting
We don't want your uncut war footage, fundraisers, credible news articles, or other such things. The world is already serious enough as it is.
7. No classified material
Classified ‘western’ information is off limits regardless of how "open source" and "easy to find" it is.
8. Source artwork
If you use somebody's art in your post or as your post, the OP must provide a direct link to the art's source in the comment section, or a good reason why this was not possible (such as the artist deleting their account). The source should be a place that the artist themselves uploaded the art. A booru is not a source. A watermark is not a source.
9. No low-effort posts
No egregiously low effort posts. E.g. screenshots, recent reposts, simple reaction & template memes, and images with the punchline in the title. Put these in weekly Matrix chat instead.
10. Don't get us banned
No brigading or harassing other communities. Do not post memes with a "haha people that I hate died… haha" punchline or violating the sh.itjust.works rules (below). This includes content illegal in Canada.
11. No misinformation
NCD exists to make fun of misinformation, not to spread it. Make outlandish claims, but if your take doesn’t show signs of satire or exaggeration it will be removed. Misleading content may result in a ban. Regardless of source, don’t post obvious propaganda or fake news. Double-check facts and don't be an idiot.
Join our Matrix chatroom
Other communities you may be interested in
- !militaryporn@lemmy.world
- !forgottenweapons@lemmy.world
- !combatvideos@sh.itjust.works
- !militarymoe@ani.social
Banner made by u/Fertility18
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Can XKCD also figure out how big a space based solar panel has to be to cast a visible shadow?
Randall Munroe might be busy, so I'll try.
Okay, according to cooking StackOverflow, a popcorn kernel pops at about 180-200C. Once Iowa is dry enough for the corn to pop, that's the target temperature, and according to the USDA Iowa produced 2.58 billion bushels of corn in 2024. It appears in Iowa it's still cold enough they have just one harvest, and we'll assume by timing our microwave burst right we can get 2 billion. If we approximate the kernel as all water, we can consult the steam tables for energy absorbed heating water at STP to 190C at 10 bars, and with the fact a bushel of corn weighs ~25kg get (2602.8-83.83)kJ/kg * 2 * 10^9 bushels * 25kg/bushel = 125.9 PJ. Reactor-grade uranium has an energy density 3.456TJ/kg in practice, per Wikipedia. So, the unrealistic answer is 125.9PJ/(3.456TJ/kg) ~= 36.5 metric tons, which you could actually fit in a cargo aircraft.
I'm going to come back and add in more realistic answers including the (alleged) non-corn things in Iowa, and then including the need to store that energy in a way that can be quickly turned into microwaves.
There will also be some atmospheric loss, so increase the PJ a bit, depending on what altitude you deploy the satellite to.
Also, it'll need to recharge, Kansas is next.
I'll leave waiting for a clear day and adding 10% as an exercise for the reader. It will definitely be rechargeable, just supply more uranium to the reactor and wait again.
You also need enough heavy water to go between the u rods right? Seems like a lot of additional volume and mass for that
Fine, I'll include plant mass with the (almost certainly much larger) mass of all the ultracapacitors when I start on part 2.
Hey, I'm already happy with your answer. Just saying it's starting to look less like an aircraft and more like a building
It clearly says it's solar powered.
So what? Like five?
Who says the solar array didn't get to space with nuclear powered rockets?
Hmmm, a nuclear based propellant. Might be easiest to make it a pulse based rocket so you can use a bunch of tiny nuclear explosions to propel yourself into space. I'm sure that won't have any environmental ramifications.
The satellite is just to monitor popping, the blast itself handles themals.
Welp an Iowa scale maser is now in my evil dictator to-do list
Isn't the plot ending in Real Genius? Except the whole state thing.
Pretty sure that was the Laslo reference in the OP.
I am all in favor of this, but I do have to ask if there is a specific reason behind this (apart from the obvious).
It's only a step forward towards eliminating Ohio and establishing a just and sustainable peace in the Upper Midwest. Isn't that worth a few corn? What price peace?
I am not USian so I don't know the beef towards Ohio, but I'm sure it is justified.
We could use the extra space for a parking lot
You will be given a fine satrapy of the city and surrounds of Canton. Do as you will with it.
I live there and I'm for it.
OPSEC
'fuckoff big microwave transmitter'
Doofenshmirtz is that you?
a tesla that goes up in flames is a tesla that won't contribute revenue to Elon in the future.
Can you pop corn with a popped Tesla battery? Can we commander a fleet of Teslas and pop their batteries remotely?
Maybe you're on to something and we can get away with a smaller satellite.
I'm not sure what Elon has to do with anything tho.
Are there many teslas in Iowa?
More than youd think. But not a ton.