4 ms·
Given 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 radio
by xattt 4y ago
Given 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?