Posted on 01/11/2002 6:34:50 AM PST by techcor
The American Drive
So, what is "The American Drive"? It is a rocket engine based on americium-242m , the most powerful fuel this side of fusion or anti-matter. The American Drive
This is based on an article from about a year ago called "Two Weeks to Mars" . Some points from the article are that americium-242m is about 100 times as powerful as plutonium and one gram is about equal in power to about one ton of rocket fuel. Some people are already working on the problem of production of the fuel (americium production) . Think of it as a natural "ion" drive but more powerful. I'm naming it after the amercium fuel which was named after the Americas.
Now, some will say this is too revolutionary to use as a rocket fuel. That is why I believe it will first be implemented in a process to reduce nuclear waste. I base this premise on an article from a few years ago called "Putting Nuclear Waste to Work" (Pop. Mech. 1998). Basically, Dr. Claudio Filippone has developed a new type of reactor called a Nuclear Power Turbo-Reciprocating Engine (NPTRE). It is a piston engine with a special super-caviation chamber in which water is flashed into steam by the fission reaction. Other methods of transmutation are being developed but this way seems the most efficient. From the article:
"And that's not all. When all of the heat and motion is accounted for, the NPTRE will achieve a thermal efficiency of 56%. By comparison, a conventional reactor operates with a thermal efficiency of 30% to 33%."
I see the future as this:
1. Americium developed for nuclear waste transmutation.
2. New nuclear reactors developed that are smaller and more powerful.
3. Rocket engines based on this element that will be faster than anyone would have previously believed.
4. Flying cars. Ok, so this one probably wont happen . But I really, really, want one.
Political implications? Well, every major liberal from Gore to Nader has trashed nuclear power as being too dangerous because of radioactive waste that will last for ten thousand years. But wait! Didn't the previous administration have a problem of almost selling "slightly" radioactive nickel that had been transmutated from a higher radioactive state? Gosh! Liberals wouldn't lie to the American public on such a serious subject would they ? On the other hand Republicans have come out for nuclear power.
This can also be a powerful tool in building relations with Russia, Japan, and France. Especially Russia. They are even more desperate than we are to clean up nuclear waste, they are a space power, and Russia and the U.S. are looking for a way to reduce nuclear weapons.
The Rolling Stone. Flat cats.
Here's one of my personal favorites, Project Orion:
Project Orion: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth
Here was a real contender for Mars propulsion Sytem, until NASA cut funding for it last year:
Basically, everytime scientists say "here, we figured it out! We can get you to Mars in three months or less"
NASA says "thanks, but we really weren't serious"
Question: Does anyone know about the ability of the reaction to be throttled, or at least turned on/off? Seems to me, that would be a necessity for space travel.
That's what I figured (read an article in Pop. Sci. on several different drives-that seemed best because of low and high drive gears). Check out B-Chan's post about atomic bullets. I always wondered if that was possible and now I have a source for it. Great!
One last thing before I go. Sometimes I have a couple of beers with friends and we discuss what groups could terra-form Mars. Well, the Clintonistas cames up as a group. Basically, it would be : " Bill Clinton: Porn King of Mars". Where he sells tapes of himself doing the Kama-Sutra with 480 of the top porn stars (mostly women) to raise money. They use Californium and call themselves the "Californicates". After that we decided to stop drinking so much.
Take it easy. And thanks for the links to the "gas-core" technology.
Yes, Heinlein is very, very good.
On the topic of Mars, however, I seem to recall that my favorite Mars story was Asimov's "The Martian Way."I haven't read it in about a decade, but I remember it being very cool, with people humming around in nuclear ships that use water as reaction mass, everything very casual. I don't remember the exact plot, but I remember it being about, in a Heinlein kind of way, the colonists becoming self-sufficent for water...
(Darn, I was going to watch "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" tonight -- Now I guess I'll have to dig out a copy of TMW and buckle down for some reading instead of four hours of Rachel Weisz watching...)
Mark W.
I agree 100% with this.
Let's hope that some fringe group or some pseudo-crackpot has or is developing a real "reaction-less" drive. Some kind of real space drive like Townsend Brown seems to have had in embryo.
Taking a year to get to Mars is crazy.
Taking a couple of weeks to get to Mars is like bicycling across the US.
A serious opening of space needs some kind of 1G drive. Then you get to Mars in about a day and a half...
Mark W.
Anyway, what's the hurry? You'll be stuck on line at the terminal forever, and when you get to Mars they'll just put you to work. Take an extra paperback.
Dang! You're tough to please. I figure two weeks is the best I could do. BTW have you ever read a book called "The Boot-Strap Effect" (I think). It was sci-fi but very interesting concerning "reaction-less" drives? In which case, who wrote it because I'd like to get a copy?
This sounds interesting but I must admit I don't see how it could work. We're talking about spontaneous fission with 252Cf, and a lot of it. The problems with predetonation become quite difficult to manage with this kind of material. Add to that the fact that in any kind of impact the compression will be quite asymmetric and difficult to control, which makes it difficult to attain a supercritical assembly, much less maintain it for the time necessary to achieve a significant fission rate. If Kahn suggested something like this, either he was free-associating ideas or knows a lot more about the physics of the weapons than I do (which is probably true).
It would have to be an Atomic Nerf pistol.
just saw this old post. You’re right that there were old tales about atomic revolvers. But I believe those were based on somewhat exaggerated numbers and would not actually work, as cool as they sound.
A critical piece of californium (which at current prices would cost either billions or trillions of dollars to produce depending on whom you ask) weighs about 11 pounds. It’s heavy stuff, so a bomb-sized globe of it is only about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. So that is not revolver bullet sized, or even .50 bmg sized. But it sounds Nerf gun sized!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.