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Nuclear Rockets Moving Along
AKAImBatman writes "Bruce Behrhorst of NuclearSpace.com recently stumbled across a new engine from everyone's favorite Jet Engine maker, Pratt & Whitney. Unlike P&W's previous engines, however, this engine is not a jet, and is powered by Nuclear Fission.
It seems that P&W has responded to the need for Mars transportation by inventing the first commercially viable nuclear thermal rocket. They have heavily improved upon the NERVA NRX design from the 60's, and have even solved the graphite ablation problem! With this new engine, it seems that an inexpensive trip to Mars is now firmly within our grasp. Will we rise to the challenge?"
I think the only thing that makes sense right now would be: Screw Flanders.
and have even solved the graphite ablation problem
I was just lamenting over the seemingly unsolvable graphite ablation problem!
Trolling is a art,
It'll just have be renamed to the "Super fun happy propulsion device"
If it's got a nuclear engine behind the cabin, I suggest the pilot wears a lead suit as well as a tinfoil hat...
So Nuclear subs have been operating in secret? Well, yeah...
Take off every 'ZIG' !!
Nuclear is only okay on things that are designed to kill people. Didn't you get the memo?
New
Untried
CLever
Economically
Acheivable
Rocket
Due to lack of disk space this user has been discontinued
It's too bad that silly public hysteria when they started filling the atmosphere with radioactive fallout in the 1950s doomed such projects (at least until those who remember the 1950s die off).
We coulda had Project Orion. We coulda sea-level canal across Nicaragua excavated by peaceful nuclear blasts. We coulda had electricity too cheap to meter.
All spoiled, spoiled I tell you. Just on account of a few dead sheep, some irradiated Japanese sailors, a few U.S. soldiers with cancer, a little bit of fogged film (cardboard cartons made from fallout-tainted woodpulp), and a few "Sunshine Units"-worth of strontium-90 in the milk. And some problems working the bugs out of Windscale, Detroit Fermi, Browns Ferry, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
>public fear of anything with the word 'nuclear' in it
We can't start polluting space with all of that radiation. It'll kill all the trees!
(For those of you who went to American public schools, a) space is a big place and b) it's pretty well irradiated already by all those pesky stars. There are no trees in space.)
sigs, as if you care.
All excited, the trip takes its toll on your body but you finally get to Mars, severely disappointed because there's nothing to do and the environment is too severe to enjoy, cry and want to go home to earth, go crazy on the way back to earth, have lost your job, get committed to a mental institution.
And don't forget wind power, which also generates free meat.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Oh yeah? Well, my business has computers wondering whether they trust you or not.
Odd as it may sound, two thirds of Americans are currently in favor of nuclear power!
Damn, now I'm going to have to change my opinion on nuclear power. I can't be for anything mainstream. Looks like I'm going to have to give up Linux too. I wonder where I put my OS/2 disks.....
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. -- Harry Truman
But damn, that's the best "in Soviet Russia" joke I've ever seen on here, and it didn't say anything about Soviet Russia.
And if you'll just provide a billing address, I'll send you an invoice for post-nasal soda removal from my keyboard.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Noticeably
Untested
Kinetic
Yellow
Undercarriage
Low-Riding
Antigravity
Rocket
Eh? There's a pressurized reactor somewhere? Where? I don't see one. (looks under a rock) Nope. None there. (Pops into the Triton engine) None here. We do have a solid reactor core with hydrogen cooling, however. It's pretty cool, because the titanium shell will melt and scram the reactor in case something goes wrong. (Hops out of engine) Now where am I going to find a portable pressurized reactor? *scratches head*
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Never
Underestimate
Commercial
Understatement of
Liability
And
Risk
=)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The only way we'd accomplish that is with subliminable messages. Maybe we could put them on the Internets.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!