dtb said:

>True, Keith, though the anti-nuclear side has put up a stronger
>fight each time. With Galileo, it was mostly fringe groups. By
>Cassini, the anti-nuclear side got far more media attention and
>they even got some senators to join in the call to delay the launch.

dtb is right. The original Galileo protestors were mostly no-account screwballs. Unfortunately, the Cassini protests attracted significantly more protestors and received political attention from Senator Barbara Boxer (California's embarrassment) and the pathetic John Kerry. The MSM gave the Cassini protestors far more attention than they deserved. Congress actually ran some opinion polls concerning Cassini's launch (I called in mine supporting Cassini). With both Galileo and Cassini, the notorious asshole Michio Kaku used the opportunity to gain media exposure for peddlling his science books.

dtb also said:

>Given that with a Prometheus type project you'd be talking
>about substantially more plutonium -- a reactor, not just an
>RTG -- that would make things tougher. If I recall correctly,
>there were already a number of Democrats in congress
>objecting to Prometheus/JIMO for that reason, and that's
>only likely to grow as the project becomes more real. And
>in the case of a Moon mission, opponents could argue that
>there is no real reason to go nuclear, since solar power
>should be adequate in the inner solar system.
>
>I certainly hope we do make progress with space nuclear
>systems, but my read of the politics is that it's not certain
>they'll survive.

It's extremely important that nuclear space systems do survive politically. Nuclear power in space is a basic enabling technology. Without nuclear reactors and RTGs, space exploration beyond Mars ceases to be an option. Also it is probably impossible to have permanent manned bases on the Moon and Mars without use of nuclear reactors.

Though it is nonintuitive, nuclear reactors are actually safer than RTGs. A nuclear reactor isn't that radioactive if it has never been activated. I've actually handled unused nuclear fuel rods. It's the fission waste products that cause most of the radiation from a reactor. An RTG is always radioactive and can never be turned off.

There's something going on politically with Prometheus and quite frankly I don't know what it is. Someone high up in government wants Prometheus to fly. The hidden agenda is not for science or advancing the interests of Space Exploration. My first guess is there's a military agenda. However Prometheus doesn't really have enough power for a laser zapper along the lines of Star Wars. The Soviets made frequent use of nuclear reactors for their Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) reconnaissance satellites. That class of satellite can track submerged submarines because submarines form a "V" wave on the ocean surface that is only visible to orbiting radar. It's possible(?) that someone is concerned about the emerging Chinese naval presence. Again this is idle speculation but there is something deep and mysterious about Prometheus.

Gary