I remember reading about these types of advanced spacecraft propulsion back in my elementary school days in the 70s. I remember also reading sci-fi books then that predicted nuclear-thermal, ion, and plasma drive systems would be standard by at least the 90s.
What happened?
Hi Moody Minstrel,
turning theory to applied 'practical' physics is not always as easy as it sounds. We do have the means - after all we have nuclear submarines, the LHC, and magnetic field controlled plasma reactors - just that no one government or President is willing to go out on a limb and say "lets build the first Starship Enterprise" mainly because it has nowhere to go, and there is no visible or foreseeable economic return. Whoever takes the plunge has to do so, just because we can CAN.
Politics and money Minstrel. An apathetic public didn't help either.
This is a subject near and dear to me. I'm not a rocket scientist by any stretch, but I'm not too shabby as a self-educated layman in this area.
The public has been manipulated to believe that any form of nuclear application is anathema. This has been translated into NASA policy and led to the present dearth of propulsion tech. Does the public have a reason to fear anything "nuclear"? If it has the word "bomb" behind it, fear isn't a bad idea. But rockets using nuclear energy can be made and used safely and the public should be educated accordingly.
For God's sake people, we should be dropping probes into wormhole nexus points by now!
my husband and i were talking about this (after watching the documentary about NASA's plans to go to Mars) and i was just stunned on everything that would go into this mission.
I guess right now they are not worried about the fuel so much as the space maddness the astronauts would have from being in that small a space for 18 months.
It is all a bit out of reach right now.. but by 2020 who knows. Maybe Martians will be a distinct possibility.
Hi dad2059,
the whole idea of a nuclear submarine is that it is self-sufficient and can operate for six to twelve months without needing to come to shore (and then it is for shore leave and to stock up with food & stores). Pretty much the minimum any space vessel needs with current technology.
Of course not easy to propel a nuclear submarine into space, but ine could assemble one in sections in space, just like the ISS. The Space program needs to be more ambitious, it needs to think of manned flight, and not just three or four men on a four or five day trip to the moon, but a team of 50 to 100 men (and women) on six to twelve month space missions - to mars and back.
But the safety margins and outer skins need to be thicker, increasing the weight and volume of the craft requires the kind of power & Thrust to Weight ratios only nuclear propulsion could provide.
As for private enterprise, private enterprise will build whatever government 'contracts' - but how many people do you think have the kind of disposable incomes to become space travellers. You won't find 50 or 100 billionaires that want to spend six or twelve months in space as tourists. However you will find 50 or 100 airmen or seamen (and scientists) willing to do so.
And the returns for private enterprise are too long, sure every millionaire in the US might want to go on a world cruise for 2 weeks or 2 months (preferably in their private yacht) but how many millionaires or billionaires are fit enough to travel space and how many have dickie hearts - including Dick Cheney - which means they are not fit for space travel.
Hi Xmichra,
indeeed psichological profiling is essential, even if you have ipods nintendos and internet. I guess the kind of men and women that can spend six months in a submarine or at sea, are the most capable.
If the vessel is large enough, like a submarine - it would be pretty much like being away at college for 18 months, albeit in a very cramped space - and there is NO getting out or getting off, if you get cold feet.
The submarine analogy is the one that is used the most when planning long interplanetary missions. Like you said, the tech is there, the money and will is needed.
About private enterprise, I dunno, Branson(Virgin Galactic)seems to think he can make a buck or two catering to millionaires. Like most things economic, the price will come down eventually so the everyman/woman can afford to do this. For air travel it took until the 1960s-70s when Boeing built its superliners that fly people en masse like sardines(even the 747)that the price came down enough.
I'll concede that government entities have the sufficient funds for the tech and the preliminary explorations, but if there's a buck (whatever currency is in fashion)or two to be made, private enterprise can't be too far behind.
And yeah, my space sell-by date is expired as well, that's why I'm hoping for that life extension therapy. Things are just now starting to get interesting!
Hey Q(, just missed my post up. it's funny what you start to think of when new thoughts are floating around. Although my post has nothing scientific.. or near the pretty for pictures, it was a thought 
Hi dad2059,
well I guess Starbucks & McDonalds will be keen to open up on any Moon Base, but who do you think will get there first Coke, Pepsi or 7Up.
Hi Xmichra,
if women are from Venus and men are from Mars, you can bet it won't be long before we have manned missions to Venus, like choosing a bride from Thailand - lol
Bravo for all of your research to make us bright like the sun.
Thank you for your visits to my blog and for your lovely comments.
You are brain and heart!
LOL Q9! You're da "bomb", Touche!
Mickey D's will have a lunar branch along with Coke before Starbuck's offers lattes there. But it'll be close!
This is really interesting, I had no idea it existed.
Hi Carmen, you are two kind
I'm jeen to see where your posts will take us next
lol dad2059,
well it's all about product placement whether the World Cup, the NFL or the Olympics - the Moon Base too.
I guess NASA would like to be the first, ESA just doesn't seem to be ready to up the ante, in other words just happy to tag along (for the ride)
But maybe the first restaurant at the Moon Base will be a Chinese or Indian Take-away and whatever pop they drink.
Hi Elle,
there is much we can do, there is much that can achieved - if one removes the economic constraints. No one asked how much the A-bomb was going to cost - just do it (long before the Nike logo). The problem with the Moon Base and Space Travel is the will is lacking, the political will to say "We Will because We Can CAN"
Maybe, in the end, it will be because we HAVE to. Not because we CAN.
Earth's very survival is under threat now ... give it another 20 years and the reasons may be changed to "imperative that we do."
Just a passing thought!
Hi Abigail, possibly
do you mean because of some natural disaster and climate change or the nuclear holocaust and world war three
Either way should control or reduce population numbers.
More than imperative I'd like to think that we sail to Australia and New Zealand because theu are there, and we take transatlantic transindic or transpacific flights on jumbos because we can, and we go to visit places like Machu Pichu or Thailand and Outer Mongolia, because we want to
Product placement in space? Heck, don't you remember the movie version of 2001: A Space Odyssey? The Pan-Am space shuttle? The Hilton Hotel on the space station? Familiar brand name logos popping up here and there?
How about Silent Running, in which the cargo hold of the Valley Forge had polygon cargo boxes with brand names such as Dow Chemical and General Foods on them?
(Too bad Pan-Am didn't make it to 2001, but anyway...)
the most important question of all remains...where do we want to go?
We dont want to end up at a cosmic scrap yard with nothing to look at, or search for.
lol Moody Minstrel, Touche
I was rather making the point that there would be no Pan Am or Virgin Atlantic flights if there were not already to Cities (and airports) to link. It is not private enterprise that built the Roman Empire, but Rome.
Of course Rome, like the US Senate may have been run by a wealthy elite of patricians or private entrepreneurs, but it was not private enterprise that built the British Empire, on the contrary business and trade (ir exploitation) flourished on the back of Empire.
There is no one enterprise or group of entrepreneurs can conquer space, but the commitment and funding from a government with the resources and political will to do so. If not the US or Russia or the EU, you can bet your bottom dollar China Will.
Hi Ghost Particle,
indeed that is the limit with space
There is really 'nowhere' to go, at least not with today's technology, for private enterprise to invest.
However governments can and will invest in whatever government has the will to invest. No private enterprise would have built the nuclear weapons of the cold war (where was the profit) ubless it were funded by government. Of course you could define the Whitehouse the Senate and the Russian Duma as 'private' enterprises - they certainly funded the companies that built the nuclear arsenal.
I think the will to explore is still there, near space the solar system and manned flights to the Moon and Mars are just the necessary first step for any future advances in colonising space and space travel.
A plan to make a round trip to Mars in
144 days.
http://nlspropulsion.net
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