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NASA wants to send nuclear rockets to the Moon and Mars



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 30th 19, 12:57 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Default NASA wants to send nuclear rockets to the Moon and Mars

"At the center of NASA’s nuclear rocket program is Bill Emrich, the man who
literally wrote the book on nuclear propulsion. “You can do chemical propulsion to
Mars, but it’s really hard,” says Emrich. “Going further than the moon is much
better with nuclear propulsion.”

Emrich has been researching nuclear propulsion since the early ’90s, but his work
has taken on a sense of urgency as the Trump administration pushes NASA to put
boots on the moon ASAP in preparation for a journey to Mars. Although you don’t
need a nuclear engine to get to the moon, it would be an invaluable testing ground
for the technology, which will almost certainly be used on any crewed mission to
Mars.

Let’s get one thing clear: A nuclear engine won’t hoist a rocket into orbit.
That’s too risky; if a rocket with a hot nuclear reactor blew up on the launch
pad, you could end up with a Chernobyl-scale disaster. Instead, a regular
chemically propelled rocket would hoist a nuclear-powered spacecraft into orbit,
which would only then fire up its nuclear reactor. The massive amount of energy
produced by these reactors could be used to sustain human outposts on other worlds
and cut the travel time to Mars in half."

See:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019...moon-and-mars/
  #2  
Old October 1st 19, 04:00 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Default NASA wants to send nuclear rockets to the Moon and Mars

Note that Elon Musk wants to do similar missions with space-to-space refueling.
Which approach is better?



SpaceX's plan for in-orbit Starship refueling: a second Starship:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/28/...ueling-spacex/
  #3  
Old October 1st 19, 05:03 PM posted to sci.space.policy
David Spain
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Default NASA wants to send nuclear rockets to the Moon and Mars

On 2019-09-30 11:00 PM, wrote:
Note that Elon Musk wants to do similar missions with space-to-space refueling.
Which approach is better?



SpaceX's plan for in-orbit Starship refueling: a second Starship:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/28/...ueling-spacex/


It's pretty clear what is less costly and actually feasible for SpaceX....

This is an area whereby NASA is at a distinct advantage. Try going the
commercial route to get the necessary permits, etc. Good Luck...

Dave


  #4  
Old October 2nd 19, 12:32 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default NASA wants to send nuclear rockets to the Moon and Mars

In article ,
says...

Note that Elon Musk wants to do similar missions with space-to-space refueling.
Which approach is better?



SpaceX's plan for in-orbit Starship refueling: a second Starship:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/28/...ueling-spacex/

NASA is still looking for their "silver bullet" instead of focusing on
the real challenge, which is cost per kg to LEO.

Putting an expensive nuclear rocket powered upper stage on top of SLS
(at $1 billion per launch) is an economic absurdity.

Starship/Super Booster will be cheap because it's cheap to make and it's
fully reusable. SLS is neither of those, even with a nuclear upper
stage.

Jeff
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