Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Nuclear-powered Spaceship Design Revealed

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the goes-to-eleven dept.

Iddo Genuth writes "A U.S. based company introduced an innovative propulsion system that could significantly shorten round trips from Earth to Mars (from two years to only six months) and enable future spaceships to reach Jupiter after one year of space traveling. The system, which may dramatically affect interplanetary space travel is called the Miniature Magnetic Orion (Mini-Mag Orion for short), and is an optimization of the 1958 Orion interplanetary propulsion concept."

11 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Didn't we by scoot80 · · Score: 5, Funny

    recently have an article about trip to mars in a week? So.. this is really.. an inferior mode of transport for all those Mars holidayers...

  2. What about the surging nature of the propuslion? by Kaenneth · · Score: 4, Funny

    An WHUMP Orion WHUMP based WHUMP drive WHUMP can WHUMP be a WHUMP bit WHUMP rough, WHUMP any WHUMP study WHUMP on the WHUMP effects WHUMP on cargo/passWHUMPengers?

  3. Oh dear... by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...I think someone forgot to tell the sun.

  4. Pics by StikyPad · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here's a few pics of the Mini-Mag in action. Looks vaguely familiar... Interesting how the cargo capsule seems to release from one end and dock at the other. Very intriguing.

    --
    https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  5. The best part of the mini-mag design by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you unscrew the cap in the stern of the spacecraft, you will find a spare nuclear reactor behind the battery terminal.

  6. Transfer orbit by Kadin2048 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe they are using the "Journalist Transfer Orbit." This is a highly specialized piece of orbital mechanics: basically, you take the average distance to the destination as given by Wikipedia and divide by the spacecraft's top speed.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  7. Re:What about manned? by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    1. How will people deal with the psychological effect of the never-ending pounding brought by this type of propulsion?

    Explains...why...Kirk...talked...like...this. The...future...is...here.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  8. Re:jupiter? by moosesocks · · Score: 5, Funny
    Obligatory:

    Fry: Hey, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus. (laughs)
    Leela: I don't get it.
    Professor: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
    Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
    Professor: Urectum.
    --
    -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
  9. Re:What about manned? by PitaBred · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's now more popular to be a nerd, rather than just a state of being for people who are truly drawn to it, so you start getting a lot of wannabe's who can't hack it intellectually, but are still drawn to the "lifestyle", or more the perks of being known as a nerd. For example, look at Apple users ;)

    --
    My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
  10. Re:hopefully by Propaganda13 · · Score: 4, Funny

    1) Start your trip from Earth Orbit, by firing up them engines and transferring into a nice trajectory to our friendly-neighborhood planet Mars.
    2) ???
    3) Profit!... no, I mean, half-way through the journey (or actually, just a little bit before half way, to give some leeway for properly transferring into a Mars orbital path), switch off them engines!
    4) Swing your craft around so that the pointy-end is towards the trajectory's rear and the business end (the engines) are pointing towards the trajectory's forward path.
    5) Fire up them engines again! Hey presto! You're now flying into nuclear explosions!
    6) ???


    fixed
  11. Re:hopefully by Minwee · · Score: 4, Funny

    6) Go back to school. Go directly to school. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
    7) Learn about strange new concepts like Galilean Relativity, Newton's Laws of Motion and Inertial Frames of Reference.
    7a) And no, I'm not going to link you to Wikipedia's articles on those. You're going to have to go with step six for that.
    8) Now that you understand why step five is no different from step one, you can figure out what step six was supposed to be.
    9) For extra credit, write "I will not talk out of my ass about Physics" 6x10^24 times on the chalkboard.