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Homer Hickam Speaks Out For Fission Rockets

Posted by michael on from the riding-the-torch dept.

jonerik writes: "Former NASA engineer Homer Hickam (perhaps best known for his 1998 memoir "Rocket Boys," which was turned into the 1999 motion picture "October Sky") has this article in Technology Review in which he advocates that the U.S. revive its nuclear rocket program of the '50s and '60s, arguing that nuclear-powered rockets are the only realistic way of opening up the rest of the solar system - particularly Mars - to human exploration."

1 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interstellar trips by wurp · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Dude, your repeated use of specifics gives an impression that you know what you're talking about, but your numbers are all fucked up.

    1,000,000,000 seconds is 2,000,000 times 500 seconds, not 2,000 times.

    There is no way 1000 square miles of material could encompass the sun, the surface area of the sun is much, much higher than this (the surface area of the earth is ~ 200 million square miles). Maybe you meant 1000 cubic miles of material? Or maybe you're just making shit up?

    I stopped reading after that point...