Plan for nuclear space ships

icChershireOnline ^ | 08/09/04

[KevinDavis]

NASA is spending £4m on developing futuristic electric propulsion systems that may one day carry people to Mars.

The three-year programme, part of the American space agency's Prometheus project, will involve designing new kinds of nuclear power plant for spacecraft.

[RadioAstronomer]

Interstellar would have to be nuclear.

I think a 0.1 G acceleration for a very long time (20 years or so) using an ion type engine would fare far better than nuclear for interstellar. However, for interplanetary, nuclear is the clear winner.

[B-Chan]

[techcor]

Coherent nuclear resonant spin allows a substance (made of boron and oxygen) to capture radiation (x-ray and possibly gamma) when in a magnetic field. When the field is reversed the radiation then continues to propagate. Use it to power a plasma rocket and we are on our way.