Prometheus looks to nuke future (nuclear power and ion engines for deep space exploration)

BBC news ^ | 8 Mar 05 | Martin Redfern

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We could use some power sources here on earth....the windmills have a problem:

Windmill Crippled in High Winds (Pics)

[Arkie2]

Manned programs haven't accomplished much of anything useful since the Apollo days. Orbiting the earth and servicing an ISS that is for the most part worthless doesn't constitute expanding the boundaries of knowledge.

There was one useful mission astronauts did carry out and that was satellite repair, in particular the Hubble. We can't even do that now with the new orbit restrictions on the shuttle. We're just spinning our wheels in the manned arena. Maybe Burt Rutan can make it work. NASA sure can't.

[chimera]

Like I said, there can be legitimate questions about specific programs. The ISS was a half-a$$ed effort from the start. If you're going to try something like that, it'd be better to think big, have an evolutionary pathway mapped out, etc. There'd be a lot of potential with orbiting manufacturing facilities, medical development, engineered materials, etc. Now they're going to let the Hubble crash because they're afraid to go service it.

But it's symptomatic of the whole program. Lack of vision, timidity in the face of the naysayers, fear of trying new and bigger and better things. Those are classic signs of a program in decline and retrenchment.

[KevinDavis]

Had we have a nuclear propulsion i.e. Orion, we would be on Mars right now, but no the anti-nuke freaks had us cancel the program.

[RightWhale]

Interesting about Goddard. He was way ahead of his time. He had an ion motor of some kind in his lab in a vacuum chamber made out of gas pipe.

[Truth29]

One of the pilot/flight magazines I was reading a month ago in a waiting room had an article with pictures of a prototype that was slated for production and sale within 18 months if firm orders were received. The advance payment was something on the order of $250,000 to get a slot in the planned initial production.

[chimera]

Wowsers. A bit pricey for the average consumer, I'd have to guess.

[demlosers]

There will doubtless be protests and opposition to the use of nuclear power in space.

Screw them, they're just stupid people.

[Frank_Discussion]

Just nuclear power, not propulsion, would have got that job done. And it's clean.

[KevinDavis]

True, but if it wasn't for the anti-nuke freaks we would have nuclear power in space earlier

[Frank_Discussion]

Absolutely. The fact that we don't need nuclear rockets to make a quantum leap in space travel, and these goons keep getting in the way, that makes me just that much more angry.