3 ms·
TWR is only important when you have to climb up the gravity well. Once you're up in orbit, high ISP is king to get you anywhere. Other comments already highligh
by dr_zoidberg 6y ago
TWR is only important when you have to climb up the gravity well. Once you're up in orbit, high ISP is king to get you anywhere. Other comments already highlighted that NTRs are a middle ground between superefficient, ultra-high ISP electric drives, and very high TWR chemical rockets. So that's where this sits: high enough TWR to be practical, but way better ISP than chemical (though still far from electrical).
- valuearb 6y agoNTR is not competitive with chemical rockets in any actual application. Dry mass has to triple at a minimum, your propellant evaporates over long trips, and NTR engines don’t have enough thrust to land on Mars or even the moon, requiring the additional dry mass and complications of specialized landers. We need a huge step forward in NTR before it’s going to be useful at all.
- xupybd 6y agoWould they make sense as a means to transport the already heavy parts a of nuclear reactor to Mars?
- valuearb 6y agoThose already take the slow boat Hohmann transfer orbit to maximize payload capacity. Starship might be able to send 150 tons that way to the surface itself. And building bigger starships is easier than building NTRs.