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Would a spacecraft that explodes small nuclear bombs inside a material that would withstand a nuclear explosion and release energy that would come out of the back of the spacecraft through some sort of hole actually work?
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I'm not a rocket scientist (haven't we all said that before) but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Propellant goes out of the nozzles, ship goes in opposite direction. Very fast if it was fission or fusion powered. What material could withstand nuclear blast for a small period of time? Carbon nanotubes formed into a container? Quartz? Here's a good link for starters: http://www.islandone.org/APC/Nuclear/index.html
One day...we will get to Mars and the rest of the galaxy!! Hopefully it will be by Nuclear power!!!
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Controlled fusion doesn't even exist, outside of anyone's imagination. If you want to propose fusion as a means of propulsion, describe the fusion process you mean. I wish it weren't a pipe-dream, but that's all it is unfortunately.
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"Controlled fusion doesn't even exist, outside of anyone's imagination. If you want to propose fusion as a means of propulsion, describe the fusion process you mean. I wish it weren't a pipe-dream, but that's all it is unfortunately."
If fusion power is not yet practical, then what about fission? Fission has been used for a long time in nuclear power plants. It's very easy to manufacture and I think that if there is a human mars mission, it could be manufactured on the martian surface and eventually used to get the crew back home. What if a huge short burst of kinetic energy from a fission reaction was used inside of some hole in the back of the spacecraft was used much like in the back of the rocket that could project the fission reaction towards the back of the spacecraft to get it go accelerate. The plutonium or uranium could cover the walls of the place where it would go out or it could be right next to it and the energy would go from inside the spacecraft toward to back and then outward.
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Ian: Right now, I'm banking on the present approaches being proposed to escape Earth's gravity, ie. Soyuz (eventually Energia) LH2/LOX 1st stage rockets with keroscene/LOX strap-ons, up to the ISS, then tethered orbital transfer out of LEO, followed by Solar steamjets to the inner asteroids, followed by Solar (light) propulsion sails out to Mars and the outer asteroids. Atomic (fission) powered steam and/or ion propulsion begins to be worth the effort (complications we all know about) when Jupiter and beyond are the objectives. So much potential regarding tethers and sails remains to be exploited, why not stick to what can be done in relative safety and wait until there's an off-planet facility for radioactive propulsion developments?
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