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We still use chemical propulsion almost everywhere from cars to rocket engines, a breakthrough in propulsion systems will not only make solar system exploration
by givan 11y ago
We still use chemical propulsion almost everywhere from cars to rocket engines, a breakthrough in propulsion systems will not only make solar system exploration feasible but will be greatly beneficial to our society by reducing pollution and costs.
We need the next steam engine for a new industrial revolution, space exploration and our society depends on it.
I think that all space resources should be channeled into this, our current approach to solar system exploration is the same as trying to explore the world by foot, expensive an inefficient and no matter how big our ambitions are we don't have the technology to accomplish them.
- raducu 11y agoExactly! Nuclear thermal rockets/fission-fragment rockets are the way to go, but you can't launch them directly from Earth because of the nuclear fallout.
- Gravityloss 11y agoWell, you can't use them for launch. And there's lots of other options for in-space propulsion. The specific impulse is "only" double that of chemical ones, and there's potentially a large dry mass penalty.
- raducu 11y agoYou mean the specific impulse for nuclear thermal rockets, as far as I know the fission fragment rockets have ISPs in the 10^5 range.