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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear
reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air to provide thrust. It could be capable of flying for months but emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything nearby. So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we drop a Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies around for months sending back data. At the end of its life, we could simply allow it to crash OR we could use onboard solid rockets to accelerate it to escape velocity from Titan and allow it to either go in orbit about Saturn or to drop into Saturns atmosphere. Such a flying machine might be just what we need to explore Venus too. The dense atmosphere would allow for fairly low speed flight there. |
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
On Mar 17, 1:14*pm, Frogwatch wrote:
In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air to provide thrust. *It could be capable of flying for months but emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything nearby. So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we drop a Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies around for months sending back data. At the end of its life, we could simply allow it to crash OR we could use onboard solid rockets to accelerate it to escape velocity from Titan and allow it to either go in orbit about Saturn or to drop into Saturns atmosphere. Such a flying machine might be just what we need to explore Venus too. *The dense atmosphere would allow for fairly low speed flight there. Seems a wee bit overkill, especially for the planet Venus. There's always the Rn222 ion thruster that'll kick serious thrust, sustained from a cache of radium that's worth 1650 years half life. Radium should also make helium. ~ BG |
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
Frogwatch wrote:
In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air to provide thrust. It could be capable of flying for months but emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything nearby. So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we drop a Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies around for months sending back data. At the end of its life, we could simply allow it to crash OR we could use onboard solid rockets to accelerate it to escape velocity from Titan and allow it to either go in orbit about Saturn or to drop into Saturns atmosphere. Such a flying machine might be just what we need to explore Venus too. The dense atmosphere would allow for fairly low speed flight there. Apart from a present lack of humans, why would it be any better for a nuclear reactor to be spewing radiation into the atmosphere of Titan or Venus than it would be for Earth? rick jones -- Wisdom Teeth are impacted, people are affected by the effects of events. these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH... |
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
On Mar 17, 1:44*pm, Rick Jones wrote:
Frogwatch wrote: In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air to provide thrust. *It could be capable of flying for months but emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything nearby. So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we drop a Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies around for months sending back data. At the end of its life, we could simply allow it to crash OR we could use onboard solid rockets to accelerate it to escape velocity from Titan and allow it to either go in orbit about Saturn or to drop into Saturns atmosphere. Such a flying machine might be just what we need to explore Venus too. *The dense atmosphere would allow for fairly low speed flight there. Apart from a present lack of humans, why would it be any better for a nuclear reactor to be spewing radiation into the atmosphere of Titan or Venus than it would be for Earth? rick jones -- Wisdom Teeth are impacted, people are affected by the effects of events. these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH... It's just another method of getting there quickly and having the retrothrust energy for putting on the brakes, so that it too doesn't take forever. ~ BG |
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
"Rick Jones" wrote in message ... Frogwatch wrote: In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air to provide thrust. It could be capable of flying for months but emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything nearby. So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we drop a Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies around for months sending back data. At the end of its life, we could simply allow it to crash OR we could use onboard solid rockets to accelerate it to escape velocity from Titan and allow it to either go in orbit about Saturn or to drop into Saturns atmosphere. Such a flying machine might be just what we need to explore Venus too. The dense atmosphere would allow for fairly low speed flight there. Apart from a present lack of humans, why would it be any better for a nuclear reactor to be spewing radiation into the atmosphere of Titan or Venus than it would be for Earth? rick jones -- Wisdom Teeth are impacted, people are affected by the effects of events. these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH... ================================================== = I think that's an interesting idea and it sounds doable. However, is a ramjet really the best vehicle for this? A slower, propellor driven craft could feature less active and stressed machinery, better for a long life. And in either case, you'd want to do (in my view) at least three proof-of-principle machines to test out the engineering: where would you fly those machines? So there are a couple of problems there for engineers to work at. However. I also think, this isn't what we need to be working at now. The place to explore space from, is space. Seems to me, these machines for exploring Titan and comparable places, belong three or four human generations down the line, after the practical problems of space settlements and economics are reduced to conventional practice, and there are a lot of people out there. *Then*, one of the problems for them to be working at, is this extended planetary exploration. At that time, it will be a natural extension of what people are thinking and doing. But at this time, it isn't. Right problem, wrong time. Now we need to be studying and working at how to get out there. This is today's great transition, comparable to when our remote ancestors came up out of the ocean and began to live in dry land. It's what we need to be doing now, and I think the need is urgent. How do we get those settlements in space started, when so many short-sighted, Terra-centered people, just aren't interested? ?? Titeotwawki -- mha [sci.space.policy 2009 Mar 17] |
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
Frogwatch wrote:
In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air to provide thrust. It could be capable of flying for months but emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything nearby. Roger Ramjet, he's your man ... (extra points for filling this in). Or did somebody else already beat me to it? |
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
On Mar 17, 7:37 pm, kT wrote:
Frogwatch wrote: In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air to provide thrust. It could be capable of flying for months but emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything nearby. Roger Ramjet, he's your man ... (extra points for filling this in). Or did somebody else already beat me to it? This is Frogwatch replying from daughters computer: The reason this is great is that it requires no propellant, the atmosphere is the propellant, the reactor simply heats it. It could fly indefinitely. It does not "Spew radiation". It radiates but does not cause the surroundings to become radioactive. So, with no living things there, nothing gets hurt and nothing gets radioactive (unless it crashes and then its very localized). |
#8
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
: Frogwatch
: In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear : reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air : to provide thrust. It could be capable of flying for months but : emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything : nearby. So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we : drop a Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies : around for months sending back data. If the goal is to have a long cruise time in the atmosphere, why is a jet better than a nuclear-electric plant like a submarine, running propellors? For the jet, it would seem to be more difficult to design it to keep the neutrons away from the atmosphere, which seems desirable if you want to research the planet's original state, and no particular advantage if what you are after is to riiiiiiide low and slow. And since you're using more nearly off-the-shelf and/or proven tech, you can spend the extra money you save on the paint job. Wayne Throop http://sheol.org/throopw |
#9
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
Rick Jones wrote:
:Frogwatch wrote: : In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear : reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming : air to provide thrust. It could be capable of flying for months but : emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything : nearby. : So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we drop a : Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies : around for months sending back data. At the end of its life, we : could simply allow it to crash OR we could use onboard solid rockets : to accelerate it to escape velocity from Titan and allow it to : either go in orbit about Saturn or to drop into Saturns atmosphere. : Such a flying machine might be just what we need to explore Venus : too. The dense atmosphere would allow for fairly low speed flight : there. : :Apart from a present lack of humans, why would it be any better for a :nuclear reactor to be spewing radiation into the atmosphere of Titan r Venus than it would be for Earth? : Because we're not going to be trying to breath the atmosphere of Titan or Venus. -- "Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar territory." --G. Behn |
#10
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Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan
"Frogwatch" wrote in message
... In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming air to provide thrust. It could be capable of flying for months but emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything nearby. So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we drop a Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies around for months sending back data. At the end of its life, we could simply allow it to crash OR we could use onboard solid rockets to accelerate it to escape velocity from Titan and allow it to either go in orbit about Saturn or to drop into Saturns atmosphere. Such a flying machine might be just what we need to explore Venus too. The dense atmosphere would allow for fairly low speed flight there. I'm honestly trying to figure out if this is the most absurd idea I've heard in awhile, or absolutely brilliant. I suspect a bit of both. -- Greg Moore Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC. |
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