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.

[KevinDavis]

Yet Kerry says we are not doing enough in science..

[KevinDavis]

[Omedalus]

The idea of nuclear rockets has quite a bit of merit. Many of the original creators of the atom bomb went on to participate in "Project Orion", an Air Force endeavor to harness nuclear energy for propulsion. "Orion" ran into snags due to nonproliferation treaties and eventually got scrapped in the late 1960's, but progress has slowly been made on rockets that use nuclear reactions both directly and indirectly for acceleration. Very cool stuff.

[xrp]

Cool, the USS Prometheus!

[Sam Cree]

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

Cool that they are using pounds.

[Phsstpok]

I much prefer Orion, if only emotionally, to nuclear powered ION engines.

There's something intrinsically satisfying about shoving a nuke under a Big metal plate.

I guarantee, that sucker will GO!

[Camel Joe]

How did I get off it in the first place?

[Camel Joe]

The space ping I mean... of course.

[asgardshill]

Ugly, inefficient, and crude. Here's a REAL beauty:

[LibWhacker]

I much prefer Orion

Hear, hear! I don't see any other way to get humongous, heavily shielded ships into space at a bargain basement price. And you need both size and heavy shielding if you want your crews to be both safe and relatively comfortable.

[BenLurkin]

One idea is for a nuclear-powered engine that magnetically accelerates plasma-gas with molecules which are electrically charged.

Isn't that what used to be called "Ion Drive"?

[xrp]

Sorry, that doesn't have the multi-vector assault mode (seen in my picture). Starfleet would own your egg-carton imitation ship there.

[Oztrich Boy]

Very cool stuff.

[Kettlebelly_0]

Well, you could have the propulsion system a mile or so ahead of you (or behind you). That would make the radiation tolerable.

[LibWhacker]

I was just thinking about the naturally high-radiation environment of space (cosmic rays, etc.), never mind radiation from your own propulsion system.

[asgardshill]

Starfleet would own your egg-carton imitation ship there.

A Starfleet vessel would find it remarkably difficult to own any ship that could simply reach in and "disappear" the matter-antimatter containment apparatus. (Not to mention the front of the aquarium in the Captain's Ready Room.)

Geek fight!!!

[Brett66]

A ground based Orion launch, now that would be something- especially if it was right next to Greenpeace HQ.

[RightWhale]

Isn't that what used to be called "Ion Drive"?

Ion or plasma motors. The power supply could be solar. Of course, if the ion propulsion is stronger than butterfly wings, nuclear would do well. Interstellar would have to be nuclear.

[snowsislander]

Here's an interesting story out of Japan today on new technologies for space flight: ISAS Deployed Solar Sail Film in Space.

I noticed some comments about ion propulsion; Japan has the Hayabusa mission which is currently using Japan's microwave ion propulsion system on its way to recover samples from the asteroid Itokawa in the asteroid belt. If it manages to carry this mission off, it is supposed to be back to Earth with samples in 2007 -- a pretty quick trip considering how long it has taken to go to Mars or the lastest mission to Mercury's schedule.

[RadioAstronomer]

The idea of nuclear rockets has quite a bit of merit. Many of the original creators of the atom bomb went on to participate in "Project Orion", an Air Force endeavor to harness nuclear energy for propulsion. "Orion" ran into snags due to nonproliferation treaties and eventually got scrapped in the late 1960's, but progress has slowly been made on rockets that use nuclear reactions both directly and indirectly for acceleration. Very cool stuff.

NERVA was way cool (and it worked too)