NASA to Seek Nuclear-Powered Spaceflight Alternatives

Space.com ^ | 2/1/02 | David Leonard

[Brett66]

the Chinese manned launch is an element I am hoping will change the equation

The Chinese are planning to set up manned bases there about ten years from now. I find it hard to believe we will sit back and just let it happen. There are serious implications for national defense if they get a nuclear powered base in operation on the lunar surface. With a powerful enough laser they could control all of cis-lunar space. This type of activity can't go unanswered. We could be forced to go back very shortly.

[MeekOneGOP]

Nuke type Bump!!
Thanks.

[ThreePantherEightyDuce]

I very much agree. Anyone who reads the Sci-Fi book "Foot Fall" that shows how having the high ground in space is every bit as important as the high ground in terms of mere topography.

In that book, settlers from another star system use asteroids as a weapon. Having the high ground and controlling the orbital mechanics of large objects is a fast and dirty way to get your way in much the way you could with your examples.

They could be moved to, and staged in lunar orbit ready to slingshot Earthward. The Moon would provide security for these large masses that in turn would be able to block anything incoming from Earth.

I just speak of this as an example of how cheaply a base on a light gravity world can wreck havoc on a world where getting out of the gravity well is expensive and time consuming.

Humans are ingenious in regards to developing doctrine and new ideas for conducting war, I'm sure people will think of other things they could to to gain power over others. If a new space race develops, it could be ugly and violent of the participants are nose to nose in racing out there, the stakes are that high.

[RightWhale]

The main impediments to space development are legal and bureaucratic. Technology is advanced far enough to begin, and it was even 30 years ago.

[Brett66]

I saw a show on the Discovery channel where the Chinese first tested their Long March rocket. The thing veered off course and slammed into a nearby town. The Chinese pretty much hushed it up and brushed off the failure. They continued their Long March program unabated. They have already demonstrated a level of commitment that far surpasses any other space-fairing power. They just need a larger scale booster and they can attempt to send their taikonauts to the moon. The Long March is comparable to our Gemini program. They're only a few years away at having the large boosters they need for a moon launch.

[Willie Green]

I agree. If we do not leave the earth, we will die here.

Well, you can sign-up for the next trip to Hale-Bopp if you want to.

IMHO, we need more nuclear power down here on good 'ol Terra Firma first.

It's time to defund and privatize NASA.

Let the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and NOVA subsidize their space dreams.

[Mark17]

I agree. If we do not leave the earth, we will die here.

LOL, I think we will die out there too.

[RightWhale]

Go Taikonauts!

[ThreePantherEightyDuce]

"Well, you can sign-up for the next trip to Hale-Bopp if you want to."

Thanks for your graphic display of outgassing. Usually comets do this as they reach the bottom of an eliptical orbit, but as we see by your example, humans can do it too.

"IMHO, we need more nuclear power down here on good 'ol Terra Firma first."

A disingenuous comment by you at best. What do nuclear reactors licensed and operated to create electric power, or weapons grade material have to do with space travel.

"It's time to defund and privatize NASA."

Translation: More power to the bean counters, to Hell with investing in expanding human horizons. If it were up to you, you would have "privatized" Columbus and told everyone the edge of the world or a sea monster would have eaten him if he had wasted Spain's money anyways.

Space exploration is a small investment in seed money towards more private riches then you can imagine.

"Let the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and NOVA subsidize their space dreams."

Disingenuous comment number two. That's like saying if Time magasine wants to write about news, they better go out and make some.

Want to try again. Better arm yourself with logic and facts this time.

[Mr. Thorne]

I did.

heh, heh, heh...

BOOM Baby!!!!

= P

[Mr. Thorne]

Yeah, and the lifting power is out of this world! Put a pre fabricated moonbase on Luna, launch an honest to God Battleship...

Deep in your heart, wouldn't you love to see it LAUNCH?

I can't even IMAGINE what it would look like...

God, what I'd give to be on one...

[Mr. Thorne]

We've got the tech already. There was an article in one of Jerry Pournelle's books that dealt with a potential satellite based weapons system (circa late '70's) called THOR, that was nothing more than 'smart' crowbars. Stick a guidance system and steering fins on a piece of metal, drop it from orbit, it acquires a target and BOOM. Kinetic energy weapons.

Like, far out man...

(and, after all, kinetic energy weapons would be environment-friendly, more or less...)

[ThreePantherEightyDuce]

I like Jerry Pournelle's work. The books he co-wrote with Larry Niven are among my favorites. Though I must admit that 'The First Men in the Moon' by H.G.Wells with the spacecraft that was a sphere with a coating of Cavorite on panels that defied gravity still has fast to my imagination. Wells was an author who understood bigger things had to be defeated besides simple cause and effect that is a rocket moving in a controlled fashion skyward with more raw thrust then there is weight as a mass rises out of gravities greatest influence.

I really love books like Heinlein's 'Rocket ship Galileo' as the development of character to the spaceship is as elegant as some writing about naval vessels, but stories that creatively end run the absolutes like the theory of relativity, or quantum mechanics are usually my preference to read.

[Young Werther]

I visited Canaveral in Aug of '68 as a Junior Officer (Air Force). Our tour was far reaching and exhilirating. We couldn't visit the high bay of the Vertical Assembly Building, since they were mating the second stage of Apollo 8. We had met and received a tour of Houston Manned Space Flight Center from Frank Borman in May of '68. Borman wouldn't come clean so I asked our tour guide at the Cape that bright August day, "Is Apollo 8 going to the moon? Yes, was his answer.

As he showed us the worlds biggest electric vehicle, the new tractor crawler, he also pointed out the building that would be used to prepare the NERVA upper stage for flight. He said, "With that piece of hardware, we go to Mars!"

We missed the chance then but maybe now is the time to continue our "Trek"

[Centurion2000]

Thanks for the ping ...

Next week, NASA will request funding for development of a space nuclear reactor.

It's about d$mned time !

[Scully]

gets us back to the moon (including the required infrastructure), and will ensure the development of new technologies.

I agree. We badly need experience close-to-home before pushing out to Mars...or anywhere else for that matter.

[Michael Barnes]

Thanks for the ping Brett..