And a link:
Posted on 01/13/2003 8:04:21 PM PST by Brett66
NASA wants space flights to be nuclear Fission would be used to produce electricity Agency says safety top priority in 2-pronged project
GWYNETH SHAW
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
WASHINGTON—There's a fact that NASA chief administrator Sean O'Keefe has become fond of sharing during his first year in office: Today's spaceships travel at the same speed as the Friendship 7 when John Glenn rode it to fame with his 1962 orbit of the Earth.
O'Keefe's point: There have been few advances in space propulsion in the last 40 years.
If the chief has his way, however, that will change.
Last year, O'Keefe announced that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will spend $1 billion (U.S.) during the next five years working to convert nuclear technology into electrical power, an advance that, if it works, would revolutionize the way robots and humans travel through space.
"It's a totally different system that opens up a whole new range of options for the scientific community," says Ray Taylor, a program executive in NASA's Office of Space Science.
"It would mean a real shift and expansion in the ability to do exploration of the solar system."
The proposed Nuclear Systems Initiative is a two-pronged approach. The first task is to develop a new generation of the radioisotope thermoelectric generators NASA has used for decades on robotic missions such as those undertaken by the Cassini and Galileo spacecraft.
The plutonium units, known as RTGs, use the heat from the natural decay of the radioactive materials to generate electricity. The units are self-contained, and there is no nuclear reaction.
In the second, more ambitious, phase of the program, NASA scientists will attempt to take a page from the U.S. Navy's nuclear-submarine fleet and explore using fission — a tightly controlled nuclear reaction — to provide electricity.
The more advanced technology not only could provide power for instruments on a spacecraft but also open the door for a faster way to propel the craft through space. That, in turn, would slash travel times for far-flung planets — exactly what NASA is hoping to do.
O'Keefe says the promise of nuclear technology will be useful across the board. But it's particularly important if NASA is ever going to send humans to Mars, a trip fraught with risk because of the dangerous ultraviolet radiation to which astronauts would be exposed.
"You can conquer that, partially, by getting there faster and getting back sooner," O'Keefe explains. "That's the reason why we're hell bent to leather on trying to pursue this."
NASA already has begun the competitive-bid process for research and development grants for both the advanced RTGs and the fission project, Taylor says. There is no set timetable for a finished product, although scientists are counting on the newer RTGs for a 2009 robotic mission to Mars.
If the technology can be developed, it would be a huge leap.
For example, Taylor says, an RTG such as the one aboard Galileo offered about 600 watts of electric power. A nuclear-electric propulsion system could have about 100,000 watts, which would be used to propel the spacecraft through its journey and then power cameras, sensors and other scientific instruments.
Says Taylor: "All these technologies are being developed so that mission planners will have more options to draw from in the future. Certainly, nuclear propulsion has tremendous benefits, not just for propulsion but because of the tremendous power it offers. That can be used to operate a whole new generation of instruments."
NASA is working closely with the U.S. Department of Energy on the program and O'Keefe and others throughout the agency have offered repeated assurances that nuclear power would be used only with safety as the absolute priority.
Prior flights that have used RTG units have drawn fire from nuclear critics, most recently before the 1997 launch of Cassini, the subject of heavy protests about the possibility of an accident on the launchpad.
"Safety is our Number 1 priority," says Taylor. "But all this is driven by the need to expand the ability to explore the solar system. That's why this is being done. It's not just a fun side activity."
Orlando Sentinel
I hate to think of the advances we have lost in space exploration/travel just because a handful of folks decided we did not need it. We might have WARP engines by now.
Probably NERVA or the SP-100 program.
They SHOULD be working on the pacticalities of nuclear pulse detonation thrust engines. ORION should have been up in the fifties of LAST century.
We have space cruisers up there already were it not for the eco-fringe movement.
Can you give me a thumb nail sketch on a "nuclear pulse detonation thrust engine"? How does it work? Or are we talking sci-fi here??
IMWLTK
SR
High?
The shock wave from the blast would 'push' on the plate and provide thrust for ship.
Are they possible using today's material science ? Yep. The outer space treaty of 1967 prohibits nuclear detonations in space though. Biggest block to space development for the US ever made.
Any other questions ?
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