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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?"
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I think that Bush being in office for another four years would do wonders for nuclear propulsion of all kinds. RTGs, nuclear reactors on electric propulsion, and thermal nuclear rockets have all made a come-back in the last four years, when before nuclear was a taboo word. Now NASA is all about nuclear, and several missions are being planned which use it as the primary power source. Unfortunately, I really want to see Bush get kicked out of office, so it's a bit of a problem. I don't know what Kerry would do about the nuclear stuff.
Have you donated to GreenPeace lately?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Oh yes, very safe, and don't worry when it does THIS in the upper atmosphere during launch. Everyone knows plutonium dust is perfectly healthy in really small quantities right? This is the fundemental problem with launching such engines into space - you're placing extremely toxic materials on top of a potential bomb. And what's the upside? This new engine only doubles the efficiency of a chemical reactor. I doubt that the result justifies the risk.
Those sound like reasonable constraints to me.
The public fears nuclear technology a) because it's something to fear (ever hear of Chernobyl? ever hear of Three Mile Island?); b) it is the ultimate product of military/industrial elitism, with its bland assumption that hoi polloi exist to be lied to, and that the world is best ruled in secret by a happy few.
These are reasonable concerns. Your ill-tempered ridicule only calls your own character into question.