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?"
Its a bird, NO its a plane, No!! It is a mini-hindenberg!
Ambient [Servlet Based Webapp Engine]
ahem, it's pronounced "Nu-Clure". How do these guys expect to get to Mars when they can't even pronounce the word right?
Repant. Thy end is sheer.
That may be true, but in his first four years, Bush has eviscerated the EPA. Give him another four, and he'll probably have completely dismantled it. We already have the "clean air" act legalizing more air pollution. I don't want to see his "clean water" act - it'll probably call for a 95% pollution-free standard for rivers, which would sound good while allowing businesses to dump raw pollution until 5% of the flow was pure chemicals/sewage.
Yeah, yeah, troll. Go ahead, knock yourself out, my karma can take it.
I hate to puncture all your Mars Mission fantasies, but I should point out one little thing to all you red, white, and bluers...
Your country is broke. Flat out busted, no money... Living on global welfare.
Trillions of dollars in debt with no real potential of every paying it off.
A third of your tax revenues goes just to pay the interest on the massive debt.
And....
Your country is addicted to war. You can't go ten years without sneaking off to some worthless third-world shithole to blow things up and kill thousands of people because they were just hanging around. You are a psychopathic people and you have been ever since you murdered most the natives originally in your land.
We had hope that you would get some kind of treatment for the national mental disorder. But it doesn't look like that will happen. We are not sure how long we can avoid bringing this problem of yours out into the open. We're not sure what to do about it either. Since you're violent and crazy it's usually best to pretend that you don't have a problem.
And...
Your political system is frozen in absolute corruption and you no longer have the ability to make the changes that you need to do to regain your health. By the way, this absolute corruption of your political system have led to select leaders that are certifiably insane. But they look good so we don't say much about it.
Therefore....
We caution you against to caught up into these Mars Mission fantasies. You run the risk of pissing off the people who are picking up the tab for your illusions and games. They might pull the plug on your reality-distortion machine. They might even cut off your medication.
Things could get ugly. You're nowhere as strong as you think you are. And your people are a lot dumber than they used to be.
Best just to let things continue as they are.