Russian President Dmitry Medvedev inspects a piece of equipment at a facility...Posted on 10/29/2009 7:07:52 AM PDT by tricky_k_1972
MOSCOW -- Russia should build a new nuclear-powered spaceship for prospective manned missions to Mars and other planets, the nation's space chief said in remarks released Thursday.
Anatoly Perminov first proposed building the ship at a government meeting Wednesday but initially didn't explain its purpose.
He said in remarks posted Thursday on his agency's Web site that the nuclear spaceship should be used for human flights to Mars and other planets. He said the project is challenging technologically, but could capitalize on the Soviet and Russian experience in the field.
Perminov said the preliminary design could be ready by 2012. He said it would then take nine more years and 17 billion rubles (about $600 million, or euro400 million) to build the ship.
President Dmitry Medvedev backed the project Wednesday and urged the government to find the money.
"The project is aimed at implementing large-scale space exploration programs, including a manned mission to Mars, interplanetary travel, the creation and operation of planetary outposts," Perminov's Web statement said.
The ambitious plans contrast with slow progress on building a replacement to the mainstay Russian spacecraft, sounding more like a plea for extra government cash than a detailed proposal.
Russia is using Soyuz booster rockets and capsules, developed 40 years ago, to send crews to the International Space Station. The development of a replacement rocket and a prospective spaceship with a conventional propellant has dragged on with no end in sight.
Despite its continuing reliance on the old technology, Russia stands to take a greater role in space exploration in the coming years. NASA's plan to retire its shuttle fleet next year will force the United States and other nations to rely on the Russian spacecraft to ferry their astronauts to and from the International Space Station until NASA's new manned ship becomes available.
Perminov said the new nuclear-powered ship should have a megawatt-class nuclear reactor, as opposed to small nuclear reactors that powered some Soviet military satellites. The Cold War-era Soviet spy satellites had reactors that produced just a few kilowatts of power and had a life span of about a year.
Stanley Borowski, a senior engineer at NASA specializing in nuclear rocket engines, said they have many advantages for deep space missions, such as to take astronauts and gear to Mars. In deep space, nuclear rockets are twice as fuel-efficient as conventional rockets, he said.
NASA has used small amounts of plutonium in deep space probes, including those to Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto and heading out of the solar system.
The only planetary mission currently considered by Russia is a plan to send a probe to one of Mars' twin moons, Phobos. It was set to launch this year, but was delayed.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev inspects a piece of equipment at a facility...
"Orion" is a never-tested pipe dream. NERVA is fully developed and tested hardware. Niven and Pournelle made more money from Orion than was ever spent on it.
When I was a grad student minoring in nuclear studies, one of my profs was a guy who had been working on NERVA. He was a specialist in shielding design.
My thought is first things first. Dump some of NASA’s budget into space elevator research. (material science for mass high quality carbon nanotube production) Drastically reduce the cost of getting out of the gravity well and proceed with propulsion concepts such as this. My 2 cents.
He obviously hasn’t spoken with Obama ~~~
My thoughts exactly how long did it take us to go to the moon the first time? and now they want to take what 10-15 years to go back something smells about the whole deal. We've had 40 years to go to Mars and what have we done fly around and around the earth in a ship that was out dated years ago.
Actually it was proof of concept tested - just for the record. It was at that point Tricy Icky Dicky pulled the plug on it and other space propulsion systems settling for a dangerous low orbit only system.
“fly around and around the earth in a ship that was out dated years ago.”
something that was outdated and outclassed at the onset.
Ive been saying this for years.....
Nuclear is the way to go.....
and the Nuclear to use...is Freeman Dysons Project Orion.
Mars in coupla weeks.
Lets grow some BALLS America.
Orion was tested with conventional explosives and worked like a dream...Von Braun was highly impressed.
.....testing of course would have to be done with nuclear...but all new systems have to be tested anyway...
IMHO external pulse is the way to go, and I must admit I was a bit disappointed when I read the article and realized their plan was not to be of that variety. But I’ve no specific expertise in the area . . . so perhaps a NERVA or KIWI would be better.
But, on a serious note, I guess they actually did some testing, I believe down in San Diego somewhere. I saw the footage on a TV show about the whole effort. They used a scale model and chemical explosives but it did work. Obviously, they'd would have needed to do much more testing than that, but I guess they were confident it would work.
On THIS board?? Given the many nutcase notions passed around here, unless labeled otherwise, no, I don't assume that anyone is joking, no matter how nutsy the notion.
Orion would be a gigantic waste of fissionables. Unless the laser guys can get laser-induced fusion to work, Orion is, and will remain, vaporware. NERVA, otoh, is pretty much "off the shelf" technology. Build the reactors at the space station, fuel up and go.
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