Quote:
Originally Posted by ani_d
Like he'd really be in trouble for losing the earring.  Alto was a hero. |
He also lost an expensive VF-25 in doing so. And got his FIRST one shot up with its arm blown off with the second having a leg torn off and most of its systems visibly fried. He's an expensive pilot, who's basically trashed three VF's now - one per combat mission he's been in. Basically, Ozma's going to have to chew him out and use the 'do you think we're made of money?' lecture which goes to anyone who trashes equipment on a regular basis.
This is even more important since SMS is a mercenary/private outfit, which presumably doesn't get [strikeout]kickbacks[/strikeout]-- um..
special government discounts on its hardware, even if it's testing it out for the manufacturer. I'm sure that the manufacturers would have a few questions to ask of SMS if it's being told 'um.. we lost another fighter. Could you send us another half-dozen?' every few months. Especially with the way Alto's going through equipment...
Quote:
Originally Posted by ani_d
So it's safe to expose an object to outerspace (as long as it's not for months or years) and bring it back raw to the surface for a quick show and tell. Haesslich, I'm taking your word for it.  |
And for the record, ani_d, we do just that every time we send a shuttle or other spacecraft up into orbit, or anytime someone makes a spacewalk. If just being up there for a few minutes was enough to make something radioactive, then Shuttles and other spacecraft would have to be trashed on a regular basis. Ditto astronauts who do spacewalks, because their suits (and they) would be dangerously radioactive.
Notice that we don't do that. Most of the time, you have to expose an object to radiation for a long time (longer than a few minutes - we're talking at least weeks or months, if not years) to do it if it's at relatively low intensities (example: water in the inner loop of a nuclear plant), or else at a very high level for a short period of time (example: dirt at ground zero of a nuclear explosion becomes fallout). It has to be exposed to high-energy radiation for quite a period to become radioactive itself, at least in a way which is dangerous. I'd be more concerned with biological contamination of Alto and the VF-25 which went into the Vajra ship.. which in turn means that Alto either gets anal-probed and isolated to confirm he's not carrying a Vajra plague, or else that they dunk him and the VF in a tank of something designed to kill foreign biologicals... or else they're not worrying about it too much, having some idea of whether Vajra are dangerous to human health beyond the macro level (aka: blowing your head off, squishing you to death, frying you with a plasma blast).
The reason Chernobyl was such a big disaster was because the meltdown meant the fission reaction was burning everything at once in the fuel rods, and in doing so was creating a lot of radioactive byproducts by irradiating the surroundings at very high intensities of radiation.. and burning the surroundings as well, which created radioactive matter that could be easily carried by wind.
EDIT: One last note. Alto AND Ranka have been been outer space, the former twice now, without a Valkyrie - Episode 2 had Ranka sucked out of Island One's dome, and hanging above it for several moments before Alto reeled her in, then sent the Valkyrie back into the dome as it sealed up. According to ani_d's theory, every Valkyrie should be severely radioactive or at least radioactive enough to be a threat to human health... as would Ranka and Alto. Don't forget that, when Alto ejected, he was inside a Vajra ship which basically placed a shell (the ship's hull) between him and 'outer space'.