3 ms·
I really love this stuff, this is a little more out there. (interstellar travel and all...) But I really believe that Nuclear power will be required to continue
by tdy721 10y ago
I really love this stuff, this is a little more out there. (interstellar travel and all...) But I really believe that Nuclear power will be required to continue to explore our Solar System. Nuclear Thermal Rockets like Nerva[1] just seem like the only way to really colonize Mars in a sane way. I'm surprised that Elon Musk thinks it can happen with chemical rockets (and big tanks of LOX to keep cool and haul through the void).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA
- jharohit 10y agoWell chemical rockets are at a stage where all it needs is scaling up to get more power. But I do agree with you, the complexity and sizes needed makes you wonder why waste so much effort on some technology which has inherent physical limits in terms of energy derived. Why not spend that money and effort on accelerating other forms of propulsion techniques (like nuclear) within the same timescales? We need another Manhattan Project for space tech.