Euro-Russian Manned Space Vehicle Planned

drachton writes "BBC News reports that the 'European Space Agency (ESA) is proposing joining forces with Russia to develop a new vehicle for human spaceflight, the Clipper.' The head of the ESA permanent mission in Russia also told BBC that the Clipper 'is meant to service the space station and to go between Earth and an orbit around the Moon with six crew members.'"

Comments

Re:Opportunity to go with a "new and clear" direct

[prefec2]

Nuclear rockets are a insane concept and they will not work for affordable amounts of money. Also it would be far too dangerous to put so much uran or plutonium in orbit. Think about it. What will happen when one delivery fails and reenters earth atmosphere? Have you ever heard about the desaster in Tschernobyl. It radiated half Europe for years.

Also the pushes by nuclear explosions are short and strong, so you need either a great mass to be pushed so the persons will not be smashed, or you shall use a device without any people onboard.

A far better method is the use of ion-engines. They could savely delivered to orbit and they can produce a constant thrust (not much today but that could be increased)

Nuclear reactors are also no option.
1. they need cooling, which have to be radiated in space, because there are now rivers to heat up ;-) => really big radiators
2. if the transport of the urn fails, we all are in trouble.

There is no good use of nuclear propulsion in space. I'm sorry but that technology is not a problem solver, it produces more problems then neccessary.

cu
    Reiner