Nuclear salt-water rocket
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A nuclear salt-water rocket is a type of nuclear thermal rocket designed by Robert Zubrin that would be fueled by water bearing dissolved salts of plutonium or U235. These would be stored in tanks that would prevent a critical mass from forming by some combination of geometry or neutron absorption. The rocket would be powered by a nuclear-thermal reaction when the water was injected into a reaction chamber.
Calculations show that this rocket would have both very high thrust (1.3 x 107 N, for one design) and a very high specific impulse (66 kN·s/kg for the same design), a rare combination of traits in the rocket world.
The vessel's exhaust would contain radioactive isotopes, but these would be rapidly dispersed after traveling only a short distance; the exhaust would also be traveling at high speed (in Zubrin's scenario, faster than Solar escape velocity, allowing it to eventually leave the Solar System).
See also: spacecraft propulsion
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- R. Zubrin, "Nuclear Salt Water Rockets: High Thrust at 10,000 sec ISP", Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 44, 371-376 (1991)
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| Spacecraft | Antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion • Bussard ramjet • Fission-fragment rocket • Fission sail • Fusion rocket • Gas core reactor rocket • Nuclear electric rocket • Nuclear photonic rocket • Nuclear pulse propulsion • Nuclear salt-water rocket • Nuclear thermal rocket • Radioisotope rocket • The Orion project |
| Sea vessels | Nuclear marine propulsion • Nuclear navy |
| Aircraft | Nuclear aircraft |
