Is it possible to send waste products to the sun to disintegrate?

Question

Benefits? Down sides? Cost?

Answer 1

It is possible, though right now highly improbable. The costs would be astounding, considering that in some scenerios you lose a rocket for each shipment.

Answer 2

Hmm, possible, but not probable. The costs would be soooo high to do that and if we, for instance, were to send nuclear waste to the sun for disposal, who knows what would happen. After a while, we have no idea of knowing what would happen to the sun if we kept dumping waste on it.

Answer 3

Possible, yes. But horrendously expensive for whatever benefit might be derived. And would you want it raining back down in the event of a lift vehicle failure? I believe the US space shuttle costs something like $10,000 per pound just to get something in to low earth orbit.

Answer 4

Yes, in principle. But the cost would be prohibitive. The cost of accelerating a payload to a particular velocity is exponential in the velocity. We can get to the moon with some difficulty, where delta-v is 25,000 mph. But delta-v to get to the sun is 66,000 mph.

Answer 5

We won't launch trash into space until the cost per ton to get it there is competitive with the cost to landfill it. At present, it costs US$35 per ton to landfill garbage in Los Angeles County and approximately $20 million per ton to have a payload blast into space aboard the shuttle.

Answer 6

why would u want to send waste products to the sun??????the toilet's right near to u,dude

Answer 7

Yes - though it would be energetically cheaper to launch them out of the solar system.

Answer 8

nah, the sun's 2 far away

Answer 9

that's a great idea!!