nuclear engines

[CPL.Luke]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket

 

any thoughts?

[flyboy]

well you would need a big ass rocket if your gonna put a nuclear reactor engine in it

 

and theres big risks if somthing goes wrong, if the rocket explodes or whatever then we all get affected by it

[CPL.Luke]

actually it was considered for the upper stage of the saturn 5, it would have been able to send people to mars if it had been done

[DV8 2XL]

At the suggestion of Theodore von Kármán and following a request of Gen. H. B. Thatcher, an Ad Hoc Committee of the Scientific Advisory Board met in the Pentagon to consider the application of nuclear energy to missile propulsion. The result was project NERVA

 

SEE:http://www.astronautix.com/project/nerva.htm

[CPL.Luke]

check out project orion as well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion

[Thomas Kirby]

Did anyone ever produce a power-efficient drive based on any kind of electrical acceleration of any sort of matter?

[CPL.Luke]

yes, its ion propulsion, cassini went to saturn on it

[calbiterol]

Ion drives are extremely efficient - the problem is, they have very little power, but a LOT of exit velocity, so they don't produce any decent amount of acceleration.

[ydoaPs]

Ion drives are extremely efficient - the problem is, they have very little power, but a LOT of exit velocity, so they don't produce any decent amount of acceleration.

but it is constant acceleration and they run for a really long time. they can go faster than a conventional rocket of the same mass, iirc.

[flyboy]

they just acclerate really slow

[ydoaPs]

they just acclerate really slow

"slow" is an adjective, not an adverb...try "slowly"

 

....."lolly lolly lolly, get your adverbs here....lolly lolly lolly, get your adverbs here..."...

[flyboy]

*slowly*

[insane_alien]

go to the forums at http://www.orbitersim.com and look under space maths and physics. it has been discussed ad infinitum. its also a really cool sim.

[calbiterol]

they can go faster than a conventional rocket of the same mass, iirc.

 

After a certain point, this is definitely correct. I'm not sure if it is always correct, but when put into practice, this is most definitely true.

[vrus]

they just acclerate really slow

 

I think its something like 0-60 taking 4 days !