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#1 2003-11-01 18:34:20

flashgordon
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Registered: 2003-01-21
Posts: 314

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#2 2003-11-01 23:09:52

Euler
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From: Corvallis, OR
Registered: 2003-02-06
Posts: 922

Re: new source of energy

Interesting.  It appears the bombs made with this technology would probably be more expensive and less powerful than conventional nukes.  However, they have some advantages in that they can be made smaller, they produce less radioactive fallout, and they may avoid some of political consequences that go along with nukes.  Has anyone looked at using this technology with and Orion type spacecraft?

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#3 2003-11-02 02:41:12

Euler
Member
From: Corvallis, OR
Registered: 2003-02-06
Posts: 922

Re: new source of energy

Energy is produced by the reaction, and converting that into thrust should not be too hard.  Just let the gamma rays be absorbed by a material that turns into a plasma and pushes the spacecraft.

Thinking about this some more though, I don't think that it is even necessary to actually use bombs.  Instead, gas containing hafnium-178m2 can be mixed with gas that absorbs the frequency of gamma radiation that the hafnium emits, but not the low energy X-rays that start the reaction.  The mixture is then piped into a reaction chamber where it is hit by the low energy X-rays.  The reaction occurs, and the superheated gas is directed out the back of the craft, creating thrust.

It seems that this could become a very efficient and effective method of propulsion.  However, we need to improve our techniques for producing hafnium-178m2 or other unstable isomers before it becomes practical.

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#4 2003-11-02 14:05:38

Euler
Member
From: Corvallis, OR
Registered: 2003-02-06
Posts: 922

Re: new source of energy

Wow, we just invented a new propulsion method !!!

What should we call it?  Nuclear Isomer propulsion?

Are there materials that can reflect gamma-rays? To use it as a reflector for the chamber?

I have read that gamma rays in the keV range can be reflected, but gamma rays in the MeV range cannot.  I do not know the energy at which hafnium emits gamma rays.

I have found that while the Department of Defense believes in nuclear isomer bombs, some scientist are still skeptical about the claims of induced gamma ray emission.  Hopefully the findings will be scientifically validated soon *crosses fingers*.

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#5 2003-11-05 19:54:46

Euler
Member
From: Corvallis, OR
Registered: 2003-02-06
Posts: 922

Re: new source of energy

There are other isomers that should work besides hafnium-178.  I read that 19 different elements were being investigated, and hafnium was just considered the one that seemed to work best.

I think producing any of the possible isomers would be pretty expensive though.  Few of the isomers actually exist in nature, so we would have to make them with a particle accelerator.

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