http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/science/space/18starship.html
still it's charged ions pushing a ship.
what do you guys think?
also a related thread:
ion plasma rocket being developed - VASIMR
fusion-powered starship - revisiting Daedalus 1970s design
- Thread starter jefferiestubes8
- Start date
still it's charged ions pushing a ship.
what do you guys think?
also a related thread:
ion plasma rocket being developed - VASIMR
First of all, let's find an extrasolar planet that is Earth-like enough to be worth visiting by even an unmanned probe.
Yet they all relate to the subject of this thread.
Why are you in such a hurry? Let's wait for the extraterrestrials to come and invite us over.
Unfortunately, they're utter snobs and consider the human race beyond the pale. Fortunately, they consider us inedible and unsuitable for menial labour.
The first 2 quotes refer to NERVA research, which is fission, not fusion, and not good enough for interstellar travel.
First we have to learn how to build fusion reactors.
They've been at it for 50 years and they still insist we're 50 years to commercial ones.
From what I can look up they haven't been able to make one run for more than 5-10 minutes.
... so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for someone to start building starships.
They've been at it for 50 years and they still insist we're 50 years to commercial ones.
From what I can look up they haven't been able to make one run for more than 5-10 minutes.
... so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for someone to start building starships.
And those two are talking about going to Mars. The next quote transitions from travel to mars to interstellar travel by saying "more advanced nuclear engines..." might work out for interstellar travel. It is a nice progressing flow.
Yes, that is what I was pointing out. The non-fusion engines were mentioned as an engine to go to Mars, and then it said more advanced fusion engines were needed for interstellar travel.
Realistically, we have to revise our image of the men likely to eventually reach Mars. For one thing, they're not likely to be mostly American. For another, they're likely to not even be Western.
Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan testified before Congress the other week and expressed how now just the current lead in space, but the technical capability for space travel can be lost. The U.S. will quite possibly lose it, the efforts of small private firms notwithstanding, just like its lost the ability to do much high-tech manufacturing which is instead done in Japan, Germany, and Korea. Fine. China, some other Asian nation or collection thereof will explore the solar system in the future.
Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan testified before Congress the other week and expressed how now just the current lead in space, but the technical capability for space travel can be lost. The U.S. will quite possibly lose it, the efforts of small private firms notwithstanding, just like its lost the ability to do much high-tech manufacturing which is instead done in Japan, Germany, and Korea. Fine. China, some other Asian nation or collection thereof will explore the solar system in the future.
Where do you want the lift off of a nuclear fueled space craft, which would certainly produce another tchernobyl-sized area of radioactive contamination? Cape Canaveral? Or would it be more feasible to launch the components into leo and assemble them there? With the midget shuttles of pricate contractors, hailed as a great success of entrepeneurship but in fact utterly useless and grotesquely overpriced?
Not so with nuclear lightbulb--assuming that can be build. SLS is big enough to launch something like JIMO in one piece. A good place to start.
None of the proposed nuclear propulsion would create any significant nuclear contamination that should concern anyone not even if it the mission fails and the spacecraft falls right in the middle of a major city.
Most fusion-powered designs use hydrogen/deuterium zapped by lasers, not fissionable materials. If anything its the most benign design possible.
You must be thinking of an Orion-style nuclear pulsed design and that was written off in the '60s (unfortunately, or we'd have Saturn colonies by now...)
Always thought the following was a nice concept..(supposedly designed by G Harry Stein)
The Pilgrim Observer was to be a fully reuseable spacecraft with artifical gravity provided by intetial forces.. she was to be boosted into orbit as the third stage of an evolved Saturn V..
Then she would extend her nuclear engine, her living quarters,power plant and boost outwards for a detailed recon of the nearer planets..
She was fully reuseable and refuelable..with upgrade capabilities built in..
alas it was not to be.. This and other such designs were simply forgotten in the rush to build the Shuttle...
The Pilgrim Observer was to be a fully reuseable spacecraft with artifical gravity provided by intetial forces.. she was to be boosted into orbit as the third stage of an evolved Saturn V..
Then she would extend her nuclear engine, her living quarters,power plant and boost outwards for a detailed recon of the nearer planets..
She was fully reuseable and refuelable..with upgrade capabilities built in..
alas it was not to be.. This and other such designs were simply forgotten in the rush to build the Shuttle...
Pilgrim Observer was a plastic model kit based loosely on the Empire concepts (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/empronic.htm) from NASA.
It was never to be and not forgotten by NASA because it was never known to NASA.
It was never to be and not forgotten by NASA because it was never known to NASA.
