Boeing's EELV peril; Nuclear propulsion; CEV benefits

Boeing's pain over the EELV cheating may just be starting rather than ending: Boeing lawyer warns of company's legal peril - The Seattle Times - Jan.31.06. (Via spacetoday.net)
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Paul Czysz speculates about the ultimate in nuclear propulsion: Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster? Space Expert Says Yes - By Thinking Nuclear - SpaceDaily - Jan.30.06. BTW, Czysz s advising PlanetSpace on its Silver Dart proposal for the COTS contract.
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Easy to understand and sympathize with some places wanting desperately for the CEV program to use Shuttle components and facilities: Lockheed CEV win vital for MAF - NasaSpaceFlight.com - Jan.30.06. However, I believe a significantly lower cost system would lead in the end to greater overall economic activity and growth and this could greatly benefit everyone.

Posted 01/31/06 | 10:17:44 by TopSpacer | Filed under: General

Comments

Paul Czysz's article would be more credible if, halfway down, he didn't talk about a rocket engine that apparently violates either the principle of relativity or the law of conservation of energy.

Posted by Paul Dietz at 01/31/06 12:03:25

Sounds like there may disagreement on this subject even amongst the experts. Perhaps those rules need to be broken to allow human kind to move out into the solar system and beyond. I would like to see more discussion on this subject. If the Russians don't come through for us with nuclear propulsion gravity generation then rotational interia (Von Braun's rotating space wheel method) may need to be considered

Posted by Doug Gard at 01/31/06 13:14:49

<i>Sounds like there may disagreement on this subject even amongst the experts.</i>

Much more likely: sounds like there's a crank in Russia. To jump from unsubstantiated new physics -- physics that would be worth an immediate Nobel Prize if confirmed, or even if there was any substantial supporting evidence -- to naming a date when the engineering will be done is just not credible.

Posted by Paul Dietz at 01/31/06 14:16:25

Sounds like the kind of fusion propulsion system he's talking about is a direct fusion plasma exhaust system.

If we could ever get a fusion power plant working on earth we could just build one in space and let the magnetic bottle leak out of one side. The plasma is at extremely high temperatures, 100 million to 1 billion kelvin, so Isp of 100,000 seconds is not inconceivable.

The problem with his idea is thrust to weight ratio. Ten Newtons of force (1 Kgf) would mean a jet power of 10,000,000 Watts (10 N * 100,000 s * 10m/s^2.) Fusion reactors will be a lot havier than 1 kilogram for a 10 megawatt reactor.

These engines will probably be developed by 2050. They will have fabulous Isp, but they won't have the T/W to accelerate at 1G.

Posted by Bob Steinke at 01/31/06 20:33:26

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