[net.space] Nuclear OTV

dietz@SLB-DOLL.CSNET (Paul Dietz) (03/02/86)

I just read in AWST about an interesting idea for an orbital transfer
vehicle.  The vehicle uses a small nuclear reactor (about the size of
a 55 gallon oil drum) to heat hydrogen.  The nuclear fuel could supply
enough energy for 100 round trips from low orbit to geosynchronous orbit
and back again.  Hydrogen would be brought up for each flight.  As I
recall, solid core nuclear rockets can reach a specific impulse of 1200
seconds (vs. 450 or so for oxygen/hydrogen rockets).