printf@cix.compulink.co.uk (Ian Stirling) (02/06/91)
|> Have any nuclear powered rocket engines ever been operated?(the type |> in which you pas a cold gas through a very hot reactor to get |> thrust)If not have any been designed past the pencil drawing on a a4 |> sheet stage and if so what sort of thrust could be developed. |> |Air & Space ran an article about a year or two back about project "Pluto", |which was a nuclear powered ram-jet. The idea was to create a supersonic |missile with an almost unlimited range. They did test a prototype, but |it never went into full scale testing. | |The Pluto missile had a few startling side effects. It left a trail of |radiation that severly contaminated its path. It also left any animal or |person in its path deaf. Finally, with unlimited range, it was possible |that one could get loose and not be stopped, eventually killing all life |on Earth. Sounds like fun... Would'nt this kind of engine be perfect for long term atmospheric probes in the Saturn/Jupiter atmosphere.It would also need little surplus weight in the form of radiation sheilds (on the long voyage from Earth to Saturn/Jupiter.). Is this possible or do the gas giants atmosphers/gravity feilds make this impossible,or is the weight of the engine too high.(How long term could this be (erosion of reactor core by atmosperic gases at high speed) Printf.
roberts@CMR.NCSL.NIST.GOV (John Roberts) (02/07/91)
>From: printf@cix.compulink.co.uk (Ian Stirling) >Newsgroups: sci.space >Subject: nuclear ramjet >Date: 6 Feb 91 00:28:00 GMT >|Air & Space ran an article about a year or two back about project "Pluto", >|which was a nuclear powered ram-jet. The idea was to create a supersonic >|missile with an almost unlimited range. They did test a prototype, but >|it never went into full scale testing. It was successfully tested in a stationary testbed. Several miles of large pipes filled with compressed air provided the airflow for the test. There may have been a test on rails too (read the article). >|The Pluto missile had a few startling side effects. It left a trail of >|radiation that severly contaminated its path. It also left any animal or >|person in its path deaf. I think it would have killed a large percentage of the people it flew over, whether from radiation or the shock wave. >Finally, with unlimited range, it was possible >|that one could get loose and not be stopped, eventually killing all life >|on Earth. Sounds like fun... It couldn't kill all life on Earth, but it could sure cause a lot of damage if it came down in a city, and with its great range there was no way at the time to guarantee that it couldn't do so in a flight test. The difficulty of setting up a safe flight test was one of the factors that killed the program, along with: - Advances in the development of ICBMs - There wasn't any good place to put them so they could get to the USSR without overflying friendly countries, who might be offended by large swaths of their population being wiped out. >Would'nt this kind of engine be perfect for long term atmospheric >probes in the Saturn/Jupiter atmosphere.It would also need little >surplus weight in the form of radiation sheilds (on the long voyage >from Earth to Saturn/Jupiter.). Is this possible or do the gas giants >atmosphers/gravity feilds make this impossible,or is the weight of >the engine too high.(How long term could this be (erosion of reactor >core by atmosperic gases at high speed) The heat exchanger was made of a ceramic material supplied by Coors (they make ceramics as well as beer - I suppose that's how they cold filter the beer), running at a high temperature. I don't know how long it would last in operation. With the intense radiation of the ramjet, I don't think the normal radiation encountered in space would be much of a consideration, since the probe electronics would already have to be *very* radiation resistant. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov