NASA eyes nuclear-powered rocket

LA Times ^ | 1/17/03 | PETER PAE

[Brett66]

Hoping to pave the way for the human exploration of Mars within the next decade, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is expected to announce that developing a nuclear-powered rocket is its top research priority.

The space agency is expected to request "significant resources and funding" to design a nuclear-powered propulsion system to triple the speed of current space travel, theoretically making it possible for humans to reach Mars in a two-month voyage.

Excerpt; rest of article here:

Agency expected to seek funding to develop way to travel 3 times

[Brett66]

As far as I can tell, based on the "3X faster" desription, this is the VASIMR. This is good news, this technology cannot be allowed to languish. Hopefully we'll see real results and not just talk, but this is NASA.......

[Brett66]

Ping.

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[Brett66]

Just for the D.U./tinfoil-hat crowd, a search on Project Prometheus yields info on a secret NASA moon base that's been taken over by aliens:

ALIENS CAPTURE TOP-SECRET NASA MOON BASE!

[rmmcdaniell]

Project Orion reborn? I'll bet this one will take decades just to fight off the inevitable environmentalist disruptors.

[Brett66]

And for the more serious minded, here's some info on this revolutionary propulsion system, VASIMR:

Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket

[Frank_Discussion]

This is my plasma rocket of choice. Not to brag [hooks thumbs in suspenders] but I've seen the test engine in operation a few times, and it's pretty neat. Pretty megenta colored plasma comes out reeeeeally fast!

[Frank_Discussion]

megenta = magenta

[Brett66]

Hmmm, just curious, but does it make any sound and what does a 300Km/sec exhaust sound like?

[curmudgeonII]

If the damn thing explodes [which has happened with some degree of frequency with rockets], how big an area is it going to contaminate?

[Paul Ross]

[RightWhale]

If the damn thing explodes [which has happened with some degree of frequency with rockets], how big an area is it going to contaminate?

If it explodes, that would happen in space, so it wouldn't contaminate an area.

[Sparta]

Is this fission rockets or fusion rockets? I think fusion rockets, when we discover hyperspace-type capablities, will take us past the speed of light and power the US Air Force and US Navy starships and starfighters of the 22nd Century.

[RightWhale]

I think fusion rockets, when we discover hyperspace-type capablities

Fusion rockets, rockets of any kind, are useless in hyperspace.

[Frank_Discussion]

You can hear sort of a high rate oscillating noise, basically an AC Current cycling really quickly. This is a resonation through the rigid structure of the apparatus. Otherwise, it's pretty quiet, since the plasma is being exhausted into a vacuum chamber.

(Quick physics lesson for those who missed it: Sound waves, as we usually hear them, are actually compressed air waves. Vaccuum means no air, no air means no sound.)

[mgstarr]

Hasn't Zephrem Cochran finished the warp engine yet?

[Brett66]

It will only be used in LEO, not in the atmosphere. It's power source will probably be a nuclear reactor, but the propulsion system itself is a magnetically powered plasma stream. It would probably be safer than a nuclear sub or aircraft carrier in terms of it's operation.

[Brett66]

It will only be used in LEO

And the rest of the solar system.

[EternalVigilance]

So what you're saying is that if a tree falls in the woods in a vacuum, definitely nobody will hear it...

[Savage Beast]

"a two-month voyage"

That's good. At least they don't have to come back and find out their families died thousands of years ago.