A Mysterious Space Launch Mothership A Missing Link In Area 51's Past?

Project Dilithium is more than likley just the name of the effort to aquire a mobile power generation capability in the Megawatt range. Not some super secret tech requiring lots of power.

So nothing more on the TSTO program? Dissing thewarzone is easy. But there is a hell of a lot more info out there on this little gem.

a reply to: mightmight

seeing as the NASA flew reactors on satellites in the 60's and the the nuclear test aircrafts were flown around the same time i don't think it would be a stretch to imagine a small shielded reactor for testing being flown around.

NASA recently spoke about their KILOPOWER units they want to use on mars and maybe the moon, lets not ignore the fact that the ban and RTG's and their Pu cores was recently lifted as well.

the KILOPOWER units are shockingly small and light(even with shielding) plus they self regulate so its almost impossible to meltdown.

if the powers that be are willing to strap kilos and kilos of plutonium to a rocket(in the form of RTG's) i could see them using highly potent nuclear power sources in an aircraft.


funny they chose diLITHIUM......might be a reference to lithium deuteride AKA fusion fuel(in H bombs)....wasnt there a flurry of press releases about a mobile fusion unit recently..

originally posted by: penroc3
a reply to: mightmight


if the powers that be are willing to strap kilos and kilos of plutonium to a rocket(in the form of RTG's) i could see them using highly potent nuclear power sources in an aircraft.

Yes, but the request talks about mobile power generation solutions, not a nuclear engine on an orbital stage.
IE they want the capability to haul a container sized powerplant in the Megawatt range around the globe by air, land and sea for whatever reason.
I doubt it's more exotic than powering Direct Energy Weapons for example. Or maybe they just want to be able to provide power independently from outside sources in bases on foreign soils. Not everything that has a cool name is also super interesting.

a reply to: mightmight

i was kind of alluding to the same point.

but a small portable nuclear reactor(fission or fusion) is still pretty neat.

the KILOPOWER reactors are a little bigger than a 2 liter soda bottle, granted that's not including the cooling stuff but still pretty neat they have gotten reactors that would be safe enough for human spaceflight and later human settlement use down that small.

i can imagine a crash hardened reactor or reactors powering all sorts of cool stuff on an aircraft or space exploration systems(probes and communication systems)

originally posted by: mightmight
Project Dilithium is more than likley just the name of the effort to aquire a mobile power generation capability in the Megawatt range. Not some super secret tech requiring lots of power.

I wonder if that'd come in handy for an expeditionary DEW in the future.

a reply to: Masisoar

Super CRAM is very appealing to me as a grunt. It's like something out of hammer's slammers

Going backwards

CIA And Skunk Works Secretly Planned To Turn The A-12 Spy Plane Into A Space Launch Mothership
www.thedrive.com...

off by two, three decades i'd say