From: Spike (spike66@comcast.net)
Date: Sun Sep 07 2003 - 11:47:42 MDT
-----Original Message-----
From: Technotranscendence
>
> And then to make it really interesting -- you
> might take a stab at using nuclear power...
> Robert
>
> Nuclear power isn't applicable to first or second
> stages, where you need very large thrust.
Huh? Nuclear power could achieve higher thrust...
Certainly much higher *specific* thrust. As for
peak thrust, the good old kerosine-lox engine is
hard to beat. I know of nothing nuclear on the
drawing board currently that would challenge it for
vertical launch. There are some interesting
ideas for air breathing nuclear engines, but
it suffers from the comment you made about getting
around the no-nukes crowd.
> Don't compare NERVA data which was only a test bed to F-1s, SSMEs, or
other
> engines that made it out of the lab. Nuclear powered rockets can
achieve higher
> temperatures and exhaust velocities. The chief drawback is they're
tough sells
> politically...
Yes, of course the higher exhaust velocity is
again specific thrust. Actually my comment about
first and second stages was referring to the
exhaust products of those two stages ending up
in the atmosphere. I suppose that
a few nations might object to radioactive rocket
exhaust raining down from above. Imagine that,
the radical greenies. {8^D
These kinds of problems are so persistent and
apparently insoluble that I have concentrated my
thinking not on making boosters bigger but in making
payloads smaller, in which case our present stable of
launchers will suffice.
Zubrin's relatively simple STS-derived booster
looks like a hell of a good idea: use the
existing SSMEs, solids and external tank with
a sort of shuttle-minus-the-wings-and-wheels
concept. We already have the infrastructure
to make a lotta that stuff, plus the launch
facility. We could hoist a lot of stuff with
something like that, as well as placing the
external tank in a high enough orbit to park
it for a while, then use it for something up
there.
spike
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