Posted on 06/15/2002 5:46:01 PM PDT by vannrox
BY JIM WILSON
Ideas for using nuclear-fuel-powered interplanetary spacecraft have stirred the imaginations of designers outside of NASA. Perhaps the most ambitious plan has been offered by Fred Roth. A Florida resident, Roth has spent five years attempting to interest the Pentagon in building his massive Nuclear Space Cruiser, to protect the planet from errant asteroids and unforeseen threats.
Roth's cruiser (design plans shown at right) would resemble a flattened child's top. Assembled in space, it would stand 650 ft. tall and have a 9000-ft. circumference. The massive interior is needed, he says, to house a nuclear reactor and a system of ducts that function as 700 particle accelerators.
<"The proton beams emerging out of the ship's 30-mile cyclotron accelerator system give the ship tremendous lift, direction and great velocity," he says. The reactor would also energize banks of lasers.
Roth has provided the Pentagon with detailed plans, but so far there has been no official interest.
,img src="http://popularmechanics.com/science/space/2002/6/nuclear_space_cruiser/images/lg_space_sideview-lg.jpg" border=1>
Personally, I think they were just drunk.
Nuclear Space Cruiser my ass!
As long as orbital velocity is maintained you don't, but gravity works just as well in space as it doe's here on earth. Lift or "thrust" is very necessary.
LOL...not the way he used the term. You are perhaps thinking of aerodynamic lift. I believe he was referring to lift via a particle accelerator propulsion system. This would produce lift using thrust.
From the article: "The proton beams emerging out of the ship's 30-mile cyclotron accelerator system give the ship tremendous lift, "
Don't know how you could produce aerodynamic lift using one of those?
I’d like to see a nuclear powered copy of the Titanic like the one in Doctor Who.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4pdqE5kl7s&feature=fvst
You’ll see it at 1:50 and then again at 2:42.
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