Homer Hickam Speaks Out For Fission Rockets

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."

Comments

a constant velocity?

[QuantumG]

To go to Mars or back to the moon with slow, low-powered chemical rocket systems is asking for trouble. The best a chemical rocket can do is get up to speed (burning up all its propellant in the process) and then drift to its destination, like a car coasting down the highway with its engine off. What's needed are space drives that will provide a constant velocity.

Err, excuse me. Maybe I'm not Mr Rocket Scientist but isn't "providing a constant velocity" exactly what chemical rockets do? Maybe you mean provide a constant acceleration. Sigh. When you have to correct NASA officials maybe it's time to lose faith in space exploration.