DOS_patos
Unverified Legion of Trill member
Caroline Delbert
Tue, November 10, 2020, 12:06 AM GMT+1
From Popular Mechanics
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“The problem is to produce a nuclear reactor that is light enough and safe enough for use outside the Earth's atmosphere—especially if the spacecraft is carrying a crew,” New Atlas explains.
Thermal nuclear for propulsion is an old idea. While weapons are thermal, other applications have lingered in the experimental stage and then been discarded, but they’ve still been studied off and on for decades. These designs use the astonishing heat generated by a nuclear reaction to push a rocket at speeds approaching the Star Trek realm compared to what we use today. And they contrast with traditional chemical rockets, where chemical propellants like liquid oxygen are used to make something more like a supersized fossil fuel combustion engine.
USNC’s technology hits just months after Elon Musk suggested that a nuclear engine could be key to getting astronauts to Mars. For Musk, the concern was for astronaut health and safety: the longer the trip to Mars, the longer astronauts are exposed to extraordinary cosmic radiation.
The Department of Energy has found that HALEU fuel is, relative to the higher risk of handling nuclear materials at all, less dangerous than it could be. Cosmic radiation is probably far worse, and negotiating around it has been a huge barrier to any hypothetical Mars travel.
Tue, November 10, 2020, 12:06 AM GMT+1
From Popular Mechanics
- Thermal nuclear propulsion could cut travel time to Mars down to just three months.
- Elon Musk has referred to ideas like this as a way to keep astronauts safe from cosmic radiation.
- This company's ceramic-coated pellet fuel is low enriched, safer, and more stable.
? You like our badass universe. So do we. Let's explore it together.
“The problem is to produce a nuclear reactor that is light enough and safe enough for use outside the Earth's atmosphere—especially if the spacecraft is carrying a crew,” New Atlas explains.
Thermal nuclear for propulsion is an old idea. While weapons are thermal, other applications have lingered in the experimental stage and then been discarded, but they’ve still been studied off and on for decades. These designs use the astonishing heat generated by a nuclear reaction to push a rocket at speeds approaching the Star Trek realm compared to what we use today. And they contrast with traditional chemical rockets, where chemical propellants like liquid oxygen are used to make something more like a supersized fossil fuel combustion engine.
USNC’s technology hits just months after Elon Musk suggested that a nuclear engine could be key to getting astronauts to Mars. For Musk, the concern was for astronaut health and safety: the longer the trip to Mars, the longer astronauts are exposed to extraordinary cosmic radiation.
The Department of Energy has found that HALEU fuel is, relative to the higher risk of handling nuclear materials at all, less dangerous than it could be. Cosmic radiation is probably far worse, and negotiating around it has been a huge barrier to any hypothetical Mars travel.
