A different look at the trip to Mars

[orionrider]

People can complain about anything, but not in Russia where they need the cash badly. That's the beauty of Obama's international plan. If you can't do it here (too expensive, too ambitious, unpopular,...), just let the Russians do it for you

 

[Valcan]

People can complain about anything, but not in Russia where they need the cash badly. That's the beauty of Obama's international plan. If you can't do it here (too expensive, too ambitious, unpopular,...), just let the Russians do it for you

In Soviet Russia......

 

[orionrider]

2010 Russia is every bit as capitalistic as 1980 US, only they don't have the same resources. Their space budget is only 1/7th that of Nasa, but they launch many more rockets and generally deliver a lot more per/dollar.
Better services at cheaper rates, sounds familiar? Not something you would have heard in the Soviet days. Today the Russian beat the US at their own game: free market, free enterprise and the laws of demand and supply

At this point, nobody is going to Mars without Russian technology.

 

[EarthlingX]

www.aviationweek.com : NASA Re-thinks Nuclear, Solar Routes

Oct 7, 2010

By Guy Norris, Los Angeles

Novel nuclear and solar space propulsion concepts could receive long-awaited development opportunities as part of NASA’s evolving exploration road map.

Proponents of both technologies believe conventional chemical rockets are reaching their performance limits and that the requirement for faster transit times should drive the exploitation of more advanced systems. Although neither nuclear nor solar electric propulsion (SEP) concepts are new, recent developments mean variations of both could see realistic chances for “prime time” application for the first time as part of a human Mars mission, or other space transportation project.

...

Both nuclear electric and thermal concepts form part of NASA’s Enabling Technology Development and Demonstration (ETDD) study, which is identifying “game-changing” exploration technologies for eventual ground and flight-test experiments. The study has already identified high-power electric propulsion and fission-power systems as candidates for proposed initial demonstrations. In addition, nuclear thermal is identified as one of 10 “foundational technology domains” that should be developed to feed future demonstration projects.

..

 

[SteveCNC]

I like the thinking behind the NTP system although to achieve the high ISP what is the propellant being used in the calculations ? And would there be a problem with being caught in the exhaust stream even at a large distance ?

 

[EarthlingX]

I think they use hydrogen :

The smallest Nerva engine, the Pewee, demonstrated the use of high temperature nuclear fuels that provided hydrogen exhaust temperatures up to 2,550K

but NTP engine principle can use more or less anything. Some propellants are likely better suited than other, depending on what technology would be used as a basis.

I wouldn't worry too much about exhaust, because there is already a lot of radiation in space and exhaust will not stay focused for very far. Radiation would also depend on how much of ablative material gets into exhaust, for which i hope, will be minimized with time to prolong engine life-time.

 

[SteveCNC]

I wasn't really that concerned with the radiation aspect I was thinking if they used something more dense than hydrogen that anything in the way of the exhaust stream would be hit pretty hard by some fast moving mass .

 

[neutrino78x]

I wasn't really that concerned with the radiation aspect I was thinking if they used something more dense than hydrogen that anything in the way of the exhaust stream would be hit pretty hard by some fast moving mass .

I don't have a college degree, and thus am not especially familiar with the math and physics, but it seems to me that one would not want a rocket engine pointed at them, regardless of technology used!

--Brian

 

[SteveCNC]

The thing is if your leaving a system , those your leaving behind are just that , behind you . It may be a million miles but in space things don't slow down over time they just spread out so I was thinking that we need to be careful what we use as a propellant in an engine of that sort no matter where we go with it . Like using solder as propellant would be a bad idea (if that's even possible) or anything that could be a major problem for others in space hit by particles emitted by someone's engine .