earth to mars takes of at 4:00 please check your seat belts

Someone heard of the Venturestar single stage earth to orbit shuttle. The project was shut down but the idea is good . I wonder why I can't find any info on its rocket engines. All a know is that they have been first designed for the apollo 18 flight that never took off.

www.ufx.org...


this link shows an old project for a space propultion with nuclear pulsdetonations newer ones consider the heating of propelant by the nuclear reaction but wouldn't be usefuller to use a controlled thermo nuclear reaction to create thrust without using an intermediary propelant

the most important is the engine concept (you need one that uses a small amount of propelant to give you the desired speed- efficient

Right now I am gathering info on concepts with nuclear power involved

Can some one help a bit I would appreciate help on radiation shielding too

Aside of that how long do you thing would a plane with with an ANP ( Aircraft Nuclear Propultion) like this one
www.ufx.org...
can fly without landing a year 100 years ...

[Edited on 19-11-2003 by vorazechul]

What!?? Venturestar, if you mean the SSTO, larger version of the X-33, was to use linear aerospike engines. The concept of those engines was around back then, during the 70s, but very little work was done on them.

It was rumoured that the US Air Force has developed and is now testing the X-33 in a mountainous region somewhere... although there is little evidence at the moment to back that up.

ORION was an insane idea! Using nuclear power sources to heat or otherwise accelerate propellant is a better one, but still not something I'm comfortable with. Rockets have a tendency to blow up. Who wants to be bunkmates with a cosmic catastrophe?

There are much smarter, safer and cheaper ideas to get around, for example laser launch vehicles - so called "beamriders."

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Aerospike Engines

Enjoy!

Originally posted by vorazechul
the most important is the engine concept (you need one that uses a small amount of propelant to give you the desired speed- efficient

Right now I am gathering info on concepts with nuclear power involved

Can some one help a bit I would appreciate help on radiation shielding too

Aside of that how long do you thing would a plane with with an ANP ( Aircraft Nuclear Propultion) like this one
www.ufx.org...
can fly without landing a year 100 years ...

[Edited on 19-11-2003 by vorazechul]

Lead and water are good radiation shields, but the best by far is to be far, far away from whatever is putting out that nasty radiation!

you do need explosive energies to travel fast enough through space
This flight to mars is going to be very hard
Approximately a year .
The ORION is insane but I was talking about a constant nuclear reaction that can be held under control

Te annihilation (matter - antimatter reaction)propultion is allso a good alternative but it is too far away to thik about it right now but the idea is so futuristic i even made a report on it in school

Oh, you mean a fusion drive? What you really want with space drives is efficiency, and ion drives have those in spades... basically, you want your exhaust going as fast as possible. Light is the best, so a photon drive would be ideal, basically a big laser cannon. Better still, put the laser on a moon and fire it at a sail that pulls your payload.

But yes, matter/antimatter propulsion is way efficient!

[Edited on 19-11-2003 by Lampyridae]

try to find a project or a concept similar to the ORION but with a constant nuclear reaction
I am searhing for one now but still with no result

PS: I'm not even sure that such a project exists but see it that way: if I can think of one than a rocket scientist can do it twice

I've heard of such, using fissionable powder, but it never got far. Are you thinking of NERVA, perhaps?

I think that's it
I saw a site with some info but nothing specific

Only a photo of the testing aria

why has the programm been cancelled

Originally posted by Lampyridae


But yes, matter/antimatter propulsion is way efficient!

[Edited on 19-11-2003 by Lampyridae]

In case anyone cares, a read somewhere, I think it was in a magazine, half a pound of matter and antimatter mixed together would result in a 10 megaton nuclear blast.

The problem with using lasers and solar sails and all that stuff is control issues. What if an asteriod passes between them. And assuming we're still talking about Mars, how is the astronaut going to get back? So far as I know, you can't make lasers "suck" a solar sail. And its pretty unrealistic to plant one on Mars...

laser propulsion would never work. how in hell are you going to get back like Pherophile said. second off, you can only travel in a straight line. and youd have to carry some other kind of fuel to burn off to use to deaccelerate.

i think the nearest propulsion drive that nasa will use is the ION drive. i worked at JPL for 5 years i think without a problem and it sent cassini too.