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Terraformer

Member

From: The Fortunate Isles

Registered: 2007-08-27

Posts: 3,906

Website

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

What is it with you and Sterling Cycles???

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Use what is abundant and build to last

JoshNH4H

Member

From: Pullman, WA

Registered: 2007-07-15

Posts: 2,564

Website

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

they're very easy and very efficient

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Cycle

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-Josh

Terraformer

Member

From: The Fortunate Isles

Registered: 2007-08-27

Posts: 3,906

Website

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

Did you just assume there was a WP article for it, 'cause there isn't.

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Use what is abundant and build to last

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

Turns out  Wikipedia is case sensitive. Here ya go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_cycle

GCNRevenger

Member

From: Earth

Registered: 2003-10-14

Posts: 6,056

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

Well hold on a minute,

That Hyperion reactor is an interesting idea, but its pretty far from a flight-weight reactor. Even with a VASIMR engine and gobs of energy, if the thing is too heavy you still won't get anywhere. The has got to weigh only tens of tonnes, which includes everything. I am sure that a space version of the power plant with turbines, radiators, power conditioners etc will weigh an order of magnitude too much at least.

Anyway, speaking of a reactor of similar output and temperature as Hyperion, that 27MWe advertised comes at the expense of a heavy water-cooled steam turbine system... but I digress, this cooling system removes essentially all the heat from the reactor, and in the process the hot steam loses a great deal of energy and this "luke warm" steam is what carries the 70MWt of waste heat from the reactor.

This steam could be piped through a nano-thermoelectric system perhaps, but it would not have anywhere near 45% since it is not very hot anymore. Long story short, you don't have that 70MWt of thermal energy available to you at high temperature if you use the Hyperion's steam turbine system.

The mass of the cooling loop, turbines, generators, radiators, power electronics, and structure for all this are going to put you waaay over mass budget.

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[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]

[i]The glass is at 50% of capacity[/i]

dryson

Member

From: Ohio

Registered: 2007-06-16

Posts: 104

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

I have a question that pertains to rockets but not the VASMIR, For my ISS Module ship project  I am working on I have come across the deleted Propulsion Module that would have been able to dock with the Unity Module and provide manuevering and other course correction's.

Would this module be able to be uprated with the orbiter engine pods to provide enough thrust to make it to the Moon and onto Mar's and then make a return voyage back to the Earth?

GCNRevenger

Member

From: Earth

Registered: 2003-10-14

Posts: 6,056

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

I have a question that pertains to rockets but not the VASMIR, For my ISS Module ship project  I am working on I have come across the deleted Propulsion Module that would have been able to dock with the Unity Module and provide manuevering and other course correction's.

Would this module be able to be uprated with the orbiter engine pods to provide enough thrust to make it to the Moon and onto Mar's and then make a return voyage back to the Earth?

Depends. Payload, fuel budget, power supply...?

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[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]

[i]The glass is at 50% of capacity[/i]

cIclops

Member

Registered: 2005-06-16

Posts: 3,230

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

Horses for courses dryson. If you want to design a vehicle to "make it to the Moon and onto Mar's and then make a return voyage back to the Earth" don't start with an orbiting space station module. Space vehicles are designed at the edge of what is technically possible. With current  technology it's probably impossible to design a vehicle to do such a voyage unless it takes a very long time. Reusing an ISS module and an OMS pod would make it impossible.

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[color=darkred]Let's go to Mars and far beyond -  triple NASA's budget ![/color] [url=irc://freenode#space]  #space channel !! [/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/user/c1cl0ps]   - videos !!![/url]

idiom

Member

From: New Zealand

Registered: 2004-04-21

Posts: 312

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

There is are pretty decent thread around here somewhere about taking the ISS to Mars and using stacked Solar Panels as heat shields among other things.

I'm a Yank if I can find it though.

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Come on to the Future

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

bump another on VASIMR

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

Space Billionaires Are Excited About Nuclear Rockets But Haven’t Built One Yet
https://observer.com/2023/08/nuclear-ro … llionaire/

NASA's 1st nuclear-powered rocket could launch as soon as 2025
https://www.livescience.com/space/space … on-as-2025
The U.S. plans to launch the world's first nuclear-powered spacecraft

Six-Week Trip to Mars? VASIMR Plasma Engine Could Propel Spacecraft to the Red Planet in a Short Period of Time
https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/4 … ft-red.htm

and Kilopower is an experimental project aimed at producing reactors for space travel.

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-08-17 10:30:39)

GW Johnson

Member

From: McGregor, Texas USA

Registered: 2011-12-04

Posts: 5,797

Website

Re: Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)

Don't believe the marketing hype,  from anyone. 

There is no way in hell NERVA could be reprised by 2025,  because there is almost no one left alive,  who did any of the actual work on NERVA back in the 50's,  the 60's,  and the early 70's. 

See my contention that rocket "science" isn't really science (that being what has actually been written down).  It's about 40% science at most,  about 50% art (passed on one-on-one on the job,  because no manager wanted to pay for writing it down),  and 10% blind dumb luck.  And that's in production work! 

In development work,  the art and luck percentages are much higher.  Been there and done that!

GW

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GW Johnson
McGregor,  Texas

"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew,  especially one dead from a bad management decision"