[ExI] Thermal nuclear rocketry

[BillK]

On Tue, 23 Jul 2024 at 00:21, Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> The Department of Energy has finally given permission to discuss this in public, after they published the award.  (Source: https://science.osti.gov/sbir/Awards - FY24, Phase I, Release 2, search in the spreadsheet for "CubeCab".)
>
> Chemical rockets are barely capable of getting payloads into orbit, requiring discarding the rocket's spent fuel tanks in stages.  It has long been speculated that a hotter source would provide enough performance (as measured by thrust and specific impulse) to get payloads to orbit without needing to discard most of the launch vehicle in the process.  Nuclear fission has been suggested but, until recently, the designs either did not have enough thrust to overcome gravity, did not care about spewing radiation all over the place, or suffered other technical challenges - not to mention the legal ones.
>
> Note that "until recently".
>
> The DOE is in the process of funding a study, with me as principal investigator, to modernize its MITEE engine design - originally for in-space use - in light of recent technical and regulator developments, including but not limited to:
>
> <snip>
> _______________________________________________


That's great news, Adrian!  People seem to have realised that the
future needs something better than chemical rockets.

Ars Technica has just published a long article about nuclear thermal rockets.
(with over 200 reader comments).
<https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/were-building-thermonuclear-spaceships-again-this-time-for-real/>
Quote:
We’re building nuclear spaceships again—this time for real
The military and NASA seem serious about building demonstration hardware.
Jacek Krywko - 7/22/2024
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and even the UK is interested.
<https://newatlas.com/space/rolls-royce-nuclear-space-micro-reactor-funding/>
Quote:
Rolls-Royce gets $6M to develop its ambitious nuclear space reactor
By David Szondy   July 23, 2024
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BillK