# Modern Antarctic Cruiser **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716 "2022-11-29T02:03:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/1 "2022-11-29T02:03:13Z")
Going over an old post of mine: [​Where’s the Antarctic Monster-Truck? - Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS) - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-antarctic-monster-truck/842301/10) I wondered the feasibility of creating a Big-Wheeled or Cat-Tracked vehicle…one that is nuclear powered. As someone pointed out in some thread a ways back, nuclear naval vessels like subs and carriers work because an oceanful of cold water is an excellent heat sink providing temperature differential. What if we, instead, employ the sub-zero arctic/antarctic air to cool our atomic pile? A ground-speed counterpart to Project Pluto/SLAM? [​Project Pluto - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto) [​​Supersonic Low Altitude Missile - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2022, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/2 "2022-11-29T13:27:40Z")
This fellow has some interesting designs. You might collaborate with him on your project. > [@Ice Cruiser Norlandia](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cruiser-norlandia/918507): > > This is my latest sci-fi model. I finished it a month or two ago, but we had a series of home-related repairs that distracted me from sharing it here. The little sci-fi model club I belong to is having a challenge: “Build a land or water vehicle propelled by a reaction engine (but not an airplane or spaceship)”, simplified for sanity’s sake to Jet Car Challenge. This is my entry, Ice Cruiser Norlandia. It started out as a submarine hull, part of an estate purchased by my local hobby shop, w… ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2022, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/3 "2022-11-29T18:37:08Z")
The snow cruiser is one of my favorite things. I didn’t see the most recent photos of it in the posted links. It was spotted buried but partially exposed on the edge of an iceberg (possibly). Presumably at the bottom of the ocean by now. > **[Scientists Find Probable Location of Massive Polar Exploration Vehicle Lost...](https://www.thedrive.com/news/37291/scientists-find-probable-location-of-massive-polar-exploration-vehicle-lost-for-decades)** > > The failed mobile base was abandoned in the 1940s and last seen in the 1950s. Where to look now? We finally have an answer. I doubt the committees would approve of nuclear power. People are extremely careful about introducing anything to the Antarctic. You can’t even bring in live plants to eat unless they are such that the cold would kill them completely if they got loose. No seeds, no research animals, no medical experiments etc. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/4 "2022-11-30T12:33:51Z")
> [@EnolaStraight](#): > > What if we, instead, employ the sub-zero arctic/antarctic air to cool our atomic pile? Antarctic air still has about 70–80% of the thermal energy that “room temperature air” has; in Kelvin, we’re talking about the difference between 290 K and 230 K, or something along those lines. So if air-cooled nuclear reactors aren’t feasible in temperate climates, I’m skeptical that they would be feasible in Antarctica. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/5 "2022-11-30T14:01:03Z")
As well, land vehicles are much more sensitive to weight than are water vehicles. The delta-T problem you cite, plus the low thermal conductivity of air vs water implies the radiators are huge. Huge = heavy. Heavy = bad. The need to rad-shield a reactor in a fairly small, confined space is also real unhelpful. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/6 "2022-11-30T16:24:38Z")
Don’t forget the specific heat of air vs. that of water. Changing the temperature of a volume of water takes a lot of energy, but changing the temp of the same volume of air takes roughly 1/4 as much. So you have to heat up four times as much air by volume as you would water. So since you don’t have that much heating room to begin with, like @MikeS points out, and you’re having to use four times the volume, it’s probably not feasible. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/7 "2022-11-30T22:01:37Z")
You might, however, be able to scoop up a big bunch of snow every so often, and dump it when it gets too hot. That way, you’d still get the specific heat of water, as well as the heat of fusion. It’d leave a huge mess in your wake, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/8 "2022-11-30T22:12:46Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I doubt the committees would approve of nuclear power. People are extremely careful about introducing anything to the Antarctic. It’s been done before, though. McMurdo hosted a nuclear reactor for a decade. Unfortunately, it did have some safety issues and so it was decommissioned. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2022, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-antarctic-cruiser/975716/9 "2022-12-01T12:18:34Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I doubt the committees would approve of nuclear power. People are extremely careful about introducing anything to the Antarctic The [Antarctic Treaty](https://www.nti.org/education-center/treaties-and-regimes/antarctic-treaty/) does prohibit nuclear weapons testing and the disposal of nuclear waste on the Antarctic continent. But as noted by Dr. Strangelove above (irony!), actual nuclear reactors are not prohibited.