Update on Project Prometheus

Aglassis writes "It appears that NASA is not backing down from their nuclear space initiative. Project Prometheus has recently started a new web page (under JPL) and NASA is finishing up a period of public comment (last session today). Currently Northrop Grumman is contracted to begin preliminary design of the spacecraft until 2008 for NASA (the reactor will be built by the Department of Energy's Division of Naval Reactors--the folks who control all US submarine and aircraft carrier nuclear reactors). Early specs are that it will be 60 meters long, have a 30,000 kg mass, use a 100 KW reactor using Brayton cycle gas turbines, be powered by ion thrusters with a 7000 second specific impulse, and have a science payload of 1500 kg. Early mission plans for Prometheus 1 (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter) indicate that the spacecraft would orbit Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa individually, and perhaps have a lifespan of about 20 years."

Comments

ahhh they stabilized it

[Anonymous Coward]

So they finally figured out how to stabilize naquandria...

Re:ahhh they stabilized it

[Fadeproof69]

Bah! I, for one, welcome our new Go'auld overlords.

JPL

[tyleroar]

Project Prometheus has recently started a new web page (under JPL)

Wow. Am I the only one that thought the JPL must be some license agreement like the GPL, and the wondered why the hell a web page needed to be released with a special license?
Jet Propulsion Labratory

Re:Before you ask ...

[dotslashdot]

Hopefully they won't mess up and forget to turn on some really important flag in the kernel, only to discover none of their software is compiled for USB.

Re:Brayton cycle

[John Seminal]

Interesting that they would pick a Brayton cycle power generation scheme. Since it's open-loop, that means you limit the lifetime of your vehicle to however much working mass - not reaction mass, that's probably xenon in this case - you have on board. Of course the limiting factor might in fact be reaction mass after all, in which case it actually makes sense to have an open-loop reactor and reap the benefits of a simpler system.

Disclaimer: I am not a rocket scientist.

I am a rocket scientist, so I can anwser your questions. The key is to find planets rich in dylithium crystals. Or we can negotitate with other civilizations.

Seriously, with everything they will need to carry with them, I hope they find a power source that is plentiful everywhere.

And this is another reason why I hope we start colonizing other planets, building little self containted cities with mines and data reasearch centers. What will happen when the space ship runs out of fuel around pluto and nobody is there to help? I know.... it is all science fiction anyways. But maybe if someone can dream it, someone can build it.

Re:Before you ask ...

[grozzie2]

You obviously missed that chapter. The M$ software is proprietary, and will be kept here as the 'secret weapon'. When we do finally stumble on the borg (or they stumble on us), we'll seed the collective by planting Windows onto a drone. It'll only take a few days, and the entire collective will consist of millions of machines working at 2 tasks, first trying to fight off infections from other drones, and second, trying to infect other drones. The collective will grind to a halt, and humanity will prevail, until next week's episode....

NASA must have told Bush there's oil on Titan!

[mbkennel]

that's right, George, there's rivers and rivers of LIQUID HYDROCARBONS down there, and America's got the mineral rights!