3 ms·
NTR 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
by valuearb 6y ago
NTR 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.