3 ms·
How would rocket propulsion work with nuclear fission or fusion? It would need to expel mass right?
by sidcool 3y ago
How would rocket propulsion work with nuclear fission or fusion? It would need to expel mass right?
- williamscales 3y agoI think they intend to use Hall Effect thrusters
- FredPret 3y agoDoes that not produce a tiny thrust that’s only practical for small unmanned space probes?
- api 3y agoIf you want high thrust you just superheat reaction mass and expel it. Hydrogen gives you the best efficiency I think but is hard to handle. Water, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons are easy to handle. The nuclear engine can sustain much higher temperatures longer than a chemical engine to achieve both high thrust and higher specific impulse. You get a lot more delta V per unit rocket mass than just chemicals. If you want maximum specific impulse (propellant efficiency) then you want what you are thinking of: a reactor powering ion engines. Ion engines can use very little propellant but generate low sustained thrust for a long time. Solar can power ion engines too, but I think a reactor can do so with less mass and solar becomes increasingly useless much beyond the orbit of Mars. If you want to visit Europa or Titan you need nuclear energy… or it’s a very very long trip. Hybrids are possible too like a reactor that can run in either or both modes.
- rokkitmensch 3y agoNukes have the potential to be any-fuel reactors. Superheat your working fluid and throw it out the back. Fluids can be anything, within reason. Perfectly reasonable engine design for in-situ exploratory contexts.
- rokkitmensch 3y agoFurthermore, I grow very convinced America fucked itself and the whole planet when it abandoned nuclear power several decades back. Unnameable ills and more on everyone involved in bailing on nuclear.
- muttled 3y agoThey feed the fuel into the reactor to superheat it and then it comes out the back like a normal rocket, but then doesn't need oxygen for the reaction to take place.