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Old February 4th 05, 05:37 PM
Len Lekx
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On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 16:03:29 GMT, (Henry Spencer)
wrote:

There is no way that solid-core nuclear can do 100km/s. Even gas-core
probably tops out around 50km/s. 100km/s or more should be feasible with
systems that don't try to separate fission fuel and propellant -- NSWR or
imploded-pellet fission, for example -- but operating costs will be high
and the exhaust generally rather dirty.


This is rather old, and I doubt much research has gone into it...
but if it could be developed, it would be an *immense* improvement in
rocket technology...

From an article by Jerry Pournelle...

"Take Boron-11 (11B5). Bombard with protons. The result is a
complex reaction that ends with helium and no nuclear particles. It
could be a direct spacedrive. For those interested, the basic
equation is

11B5 + p = 3(4He2) + 16MeV

and 16 million electron volts gives pretty energetic helium. The
exhaust velocity is better than 10,000 kilometers/second, giving a
theoretical specific impulse of something over a million."