One of the major advantages of the dual-motor system is accuracy for orbital injection. Nuclear thermal propulsion has a very long thrust tail when it is turned off. The reactor needs to be cooled from its operating temperature so additional gas (or other methods) need to be used to cool it down, resulting in less thrust but for a significant time. Having NEP lets them turn off the NTP earlier and do the final transfer burns with something they have finer control over.The dual motor thing is an interesting solution for big thrust vs efficiency. Very creative.
Is the 8 month time frame "suicide" from the viewpoint of radiation, or from someone going bonkers, or just no way to assure that major problems could be ruled out to a very small level of probability, and the crew could handle minor ones? I must admit it would take a special kind of person to make that trip. Seeing your home planet shrink to a Venus-like point of light and knowing that just the acknowledgement to "Houston, we've had a problem" could be 20 or more heart-pounding minutes away would require a whole new level of ability to keep one's cool. And then you have to have a way to get home, hopefully, though I've heard of one-way trips to a habitat being batted around. Wow.the current time frame of getting to Mars being about 8 months made it a suicide mission (has one prominent scientist stated), so this would make it a possibility. we still have a very long way to go in making this happen. then there's a big problem of the Earth only coming close to Mars every two and a half years, so you can't go to Mars and stay there very long or else you have to wait two and a half years before it's possible to be aligned back up to make the return trip short. that's just one of the many problems with attempting to go to Mars. But cool technology coming our way.
I noticed that too. I wonder if the $12,500 is a typo.It’s an interesting idea, but it seems like a $12,500 grant is not much of a commitment.
I am hoping that the “no nuclear in space” policy only refers to atomic bombs and using atomic bombs to propel a spaceship. Just using a nuclear reactor on a spaceship would be OK, no?I had thought that one reason we stopped research on this direction 50+ years ago was something about treaties and "nuclear in space" issues. From the article there seems to be no mention of this so I'm glad that things are moving forward.
There's always been these:I am hoping that the “no nuclear in space” policy only refers to atomic bombs and using atomic bombs to propel a spaceship. Just using a nuclear reactor on a spaceship would be OK, no?
even if you shrink down the trip to 6 months to get there, then you still have to turn right around and head back, as that window of opportunity were they're close together shrinks very rapidly.....so you can't stay there for two and a half years till Earth and Mars line back up fairly close, so even a 6-month trip there and a 6-month trip back, you have to have one years worth of oxygen, food, water, and Sanity. And that's if everything is perfect going there and coming back. the Space Capsule is not going to be that big to carry all of those supplies and you would have no room to really move around.Is the 8 month time frame "suicide" from the viewpoint of radiation, or from someone going bonkers, or just no way to assure that major problems could be ruled out to a very small level of probability, and the crew could handle minor one?.
Yes, the Outer Space Treaty and the Limited Test Ban Treaty ban nuclear explosives and nuclear explosions in space, but there is no prohibition against nuclear reactors.I am hoping that the “no nuclear in space” policy only refers to atomic bombs
Oh, absolutely. Anything realistic would be orders of magnitude beyond Apollo's wildest dreams. The astronaut transport would have to be much larger just to give room to move around more, not to mention air, propulsion and supplies. Whether to a moon or Mars itself, you're talking multiple robotic and cargo supply missions first, etc.even if you shrink down the trip to 6 months to get there, then you still have to turn right around and head back, as that window of opportunity were they're close together shrinks very rapidly.....so you can't stay there for two and a half years till Earth and Mars line back up fairly close, so even a 6-month trip there and a 6-month trip back, you have to have one years worth of oxygen, food, water, and Sanity. And that's if everything is perfect going there and coming back. the Space Capsule is not going to be that big to carry all of those supplies and you would have no room to really move around.
Enter your email address to join: