NGCR Engine

[Boris_Badenov]

"Nuclear engines shorten the life expectancy of humans, if operated or tested in Earth's atmosphere or surface."<br /><br /> How?<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[qso1]

Radioactive exhaust from the plumes.<br /><br />This in the case of nuclear thermal so far as shown by the link below but even the link is lacking in specifics such as how large an area is contaminated during nominal launch conditions or how large an area is contaminated as the result of an accident that releases radioactive materials.<br /><br />At the link below, see the section on risks.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Thermal_Rocket#Risks<br /><br />On gas core rockets, check the top of the page comments on thermal radiation in the UV range.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_core_reactor_rocket<br /><br />I do not have the details immediatly available as to specific exposure levels and footprints. I will post that if I can locate it. Detailed nuclear propulsion info is hard to come by. For years I wondered if there was any significant radiation risk in taking inert nuclear propulsion units to orbit for attachment to a spacecraft. To this day I havn't found detailed info.<br /><br />As far as radiation risk on the ground. This issue is always raised as an issue whenever nuclear rockets are proposed. IMO, I favor space operation only because of not just the environmental risks but operating an upper stage expensive nuclear rocket then throwing it away is rather wasteful. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[gunsandrockets]

"Detailed nuclear propulsion info is hard to come by...To this day I havn't found detailed info."<br /><br />Try the book, 'To the end of the solar system: the story of the nuclear rocket'. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813122678/qid=1151482204/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6377034-6610414?s=books&v=glance&n=283155<br /><br />My local library had it and I just read it. Very very good book. <br /><br />"For years I wondered if there was any significant radiation risk in taking inert nuclear propulsion units to orbit for attachment to a spacecraft."<br /><br />The answer is no.

 

[qso1]

Thanks for the link and info. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[gunsandrockets]

"Thanks for the link and info."<br /><br />You're welcome.<br /><br />That book was a revelation to me, as I had no clue how far and how fast development of the nuclear rocket had come.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

I just love it whenever something new pops up. This baby puts out .01 to 10 power! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />http://www.space.mict.go.th/Article/IAC/%BA%B7%A4%C7%D2%C1%B7%D2%A7%C7%D4%A2%D2%A1%D2%C3/Paper-265.pdf <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[webtaz99]

Too bad it's just vaporware. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

In the interview with Dr. Robert Bussard that is linked in "Significant Benson (Dream Chaser) interview" the good Dr has this to say;<br /><br /><font color="yellow">My objective at age 7 was to fly to Mars, & I still want to do that today. Fusion power will enable a very remarkable space engine that will be a thousand times more powerful than anything else. It will enable a single stage rocket trip to Mars in four weeks. You can do HTOL to LEO (horizontal take off & landing to low earth orbit) for $25/kilogram. You can travel to Titan, a moon of Saturn in 76 days.</font><br /><br /> That's a pretty powerful engine he's thinking about.<br /><br /> Should Google go Nuclear? An Interview with Dr Robert Bussard <br /><br /> Why anyone would not want to use Nuclear to explore the Solar System Is beyond me.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[owenander]

lol @ fusion powered space craft<br />does that DOCTOR have any idea how huge of a magnet they are currently building in france to hold fusion power?<br /><br />the asteroids are the key to space exploration, once we can harness the resources from the asteroids, then we can start thinking about mars

 

[gunsandrockets]

"lol @ fusion powered space craft...does that DOCTOR have any idea how huge of a magnet they are currently building in france to hold fusion power?"<br /><br />Sigh.<br /><br />To make such a comment you obviously have no idea who 'that doctor' is, or the kind of completely different fusion approach he is investigating. Try google searching Bussard and Polywell to enlighten yourself.<br /><br />I doubt that Bussard's new fusion reactor will provide a spaceflight breakthrough. But that is no excuse for contempt.<br />

 

[docm]

This was posted at NASA Spaceflight by Tom Ligon about the PolyWell;<br /><br />Original post link<br /><br />DD = deuterium-deuterium fusion<br />T = Tesla, the SI unit for magnetic flux density; the CGS unit being the Gauss<br />1T = 10,000 Gauss; Earths magnetic field = 0.5 Gauss.<br /><br />For reference: modern medical MRI systems run at 0.5-2.0 Tesla, though some research rigs run at 20-60 Tesla.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>To answer your questions posed under the Hawking topic ...<br /><br />I worked for Dr. Bussard for about 5 and a half years.<br /><br />Dr. Nicholas A. Krall has been working with Dr. Bussard on this essentially from the start. His reputation as a theoretical plasma physicist is on par with Bussard's as a designer.<br /><br />If I had 200 million and enough left over to live on comfortably, this thing would be funded already.<br /><br />Bussard's approach is essentially a "perfect Hirsch/Farnsworth Fusor". It is a spherical convergent focus electrodynamic particle accelerator. It doesn't work on maxwellianized heat, it works by raising ions to fusion velocity and focussing them on a central convergence point. Ions not making fusion collisions recirculate, and those making elastic non-fusion collisions have their energy re-equalized by a collisional phenomenon that occurs near the outside of the potential well. The result is long ion lifetime at high kinetic energy.<br /><br />I have a little Hirsch/Farnsworth fusor that puts out 3000 fusions per second at 18 kV on DD. At 12.5 kV, the highest drive voltage WB-6 was run at, most fusors put out so little you have to beat the counting statistics to death to even detect the output, but WB-6 actually put out (for about a quarter of a millisecond at a time) a screaming load of neutrons. Yesterday I read a report that noted that one of the tests was actually run at 5 kV and</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>