4 ms·
Lot's of unproven technologies in the proposed missions: thermal nuclear propulsion (a big can of worms by itself), zero-boil-off hydrogen tanks, microsat swarm
by avian 6y ago
Lot's of unproven technologies in the proposed missions: thermal nuclear propulsion (a big can of worms by itself), zero-boil-off hydrogen tanks, microsat swarms, ...
One point that I haven't seen discussed in similar papers was the need to deal with uncertainty in the object's trajectory. You have to be able to do targeting (i.e. carry a big enough telescope) and do course correction on-route (i.e. carry enough fuel).
- f00zz 6y ago> a big can of worms I'm all for nuclear rockets, but it's a bit hard to believe that people will accept a flying nuclear reactor when you remember the controversy over Cassini's comparatively puny RTG.
- sp332 6y agoI don't mind having a nuclear rocket in space, but I am worried about the part of the trip where it's still in the atmosphere and strapped to a flaming bottle of kerosene.
- spaetzleesser 6y agoWe can strap it to a flaming bottle of liquid oxygen and hydrogen :)
- ceejayoz 6y agoCuriosity and Perseverance's RTGs seem to have gone over fine in more recent years, though.
- avian 6y agoWould be interesting to see some analysis from a public relations point of view why that was the case. From a technical standpoint, both Cassini and Galileo did Earth gravity assists. The argument was that an error in navigation could cause them to hit Earth on such a flyby. While RTGs were designed to remain contained on launch failure they wouldn't survive such a high-speed reentry. Another (much less realistic) fear I heard was that the plutonium in their RTGs could ignite fusion in the cores of Jupiter or Saturn when the probes were dumped into their atmospheres. Neither of these two concerns apply to Mars rovers.
- tzfld 6y ago> thermal nuclear propulsion No way we will see something like this without military involvement. Thinking about the huge amount of money to be invested.
- iso1210 6y agoFast flyby seems fine -- "A combination of Falcon Heavy or Space Launch System, chemical propulsion, and Parker Solar Probe-derived heatshield technology would be sufficient for fast flybys"