Comments Posted By Joseph Somsel
Displaying 1 To 1 Of 1 Comments
Indeed, an impressive accomplishment. My professional respects to the engineers who designed and conducted this probe.
As to human space travel, Mr. Moran is correct that a round trip to Mars will take 3 years using conventional chemical rocket propulsion. However, this could be shortened to 6 months round trip if nuclear propulsion is used. As of 1972, the US had nuclear rocket engines ready for flight testing. However, President Nixon cancelled the whole program.
The advance that made a nuclear rocket possible was called TRISO fuel. Essentially, uranium ceramic granules the size of sand were coated with multiple layers of silicon carbide and graphite. This permitted the high operating temperatures needed for rockets.
The core technology from the US nuclear rocket program lives own in South Africa with help from Japanese and American nuclear companies. The pebble bed reactor would use TRISO fuel in its core to allow high temperature operation and a significant increase in operating efficiency in electricity generation. The reactor's high output temperature would also be the critical milestone needed for chemical processes like hydrogen production from water and nuclear-driven coal-to-liquids conversion.
Comment Posted By Joseph Somsel On 26.05.2008 @ 12:00
