3 ms·
Apparently a nuclear drive could half the transit time to Mars for astronauts, which has the additional benefit of less hard radiation exposure (assuming the nu
by photochemsyn 4y ago
Apparently a nuclear drive could half the transit time to Mars for astronauts, which has the additional benefit of less hard radiation exposure (assuming the nuclear reactor doesn't have any issues in transit).
There were projects to develop nuclear thermal designs at the Nevada Test Site (Area 25, 'Jackass Flats') run by Los Alamos, 1955-1973. They had three designs (Kiwi, Phoebee, Pewee), all using highly-enriched uranium (bomb grade, as with nuclear engine reactors). I think these have longer lifetimes and are more efficient, but the new NASA report makes a point of using low-enriched designs this time around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Rover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Rover
I can't imagine it would be plausible to launch something like that without first testing it at a DOE/NNSA facility of some kind however, which might be a little problematic, as blowing up a nuclear reactor during a rocket test would be bad optics.
- xattt 4y agoGiven the increased speeds, how does arrival at the destination work? I assume the rocket is rotated 180° and fired. Is the plume the rocket flies through radioactive?
- photochemsyn 4y agoThere are some other options like aerobraking in the thin Martian atmosphere, and the gravity of Mars helps capture the vehicle at the other end, so not that much braking thrust is needed, and it's going to be fired at some complex angle: https://marspedia.org/Earth-Mars_Transfer_Trajectory https://marspedia.org/Earth-Mars_Transfer_Trajectory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohmann_transfer_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohmann_transfer_orbit These types of rockets ideally shouldn't produce much radiation, as the working fluid (propellant) is just heated up by passage through the reactor, although I don't know if there's a primary coolant loop and a heat exchange or if it's just basically the primary coolant being blown out to space, in which case maybe there'd be some 3H-tritium formed? Probably not much of a concern, though it might be for a Earth-based test firing.
- woooooo 4y agoI don't think the rocket flies through the plume? It's in vacuum and just keeps going, faster than the rocket and ahead of it?