top | item 39424377

(no title)

neverminder | 2 years ago

Accelerating/decelerating at 1G the entire journey would be the perfect scenario. Not only that would be the shortest travel time, but it would maintain gravity inside the ship all the time. If this is not the ultimate goal being worked towards, then we may as well just give up now. Nuclear is where it's at - it's the most efficient weight to power ratio generation known to man.

discuss

order

pfdietz|2 years ago

It's about as realistic as propelling the vehicle with unicorn farts. In particular, the kinds of nuclear propulsion being discussed in this thread could not do it. Solid core nuclear thermal rockets using hydrogen have an Isp of about 1000, so they could accelerate a vehicle at 1 gee for less than an hour.

The power/weight ratio of nuclear rockets actually sucks, compared to chemical rockets. Conveying heat through a solid/fluid interface is awkward and slow compared to just making it in situ by combustion.

mdekkers|2 years ago

NASA: “Here are some idea around Nuclear propulsion in space”

HN: > It's about as realistic as propelling the vehicle with unicorn farts.