Robert Zurin's proposal for a Nuclear Salt water engine seems to solve this problem. The Transit time is quite fast (over 3.6% the speed of Light) and its relatively low tech (no Antimatter or Fusion).So what's your view on the system. Links:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_salt-water_rockethttp://www.npl.washington.edu/av/altvw56.htmlPS:this is my first post on this forum
less than one year of us military spending)
NSWP Is a doable project low cost program.
Salt water to nukes is like garlic to a vampire. You start a conversation with anyone who knows anything about nuke power you lose them at the words "salt water". It's not fair, but US nuclear folks are pretty much all Pressurized Water reactor types and you will never convince them that salt water should be anywhere near a primary or secondary coolant system.
Quote from: SpaceGeek123 on 02/07/2012 03:10 am less than one year of us military spending)Strawman. Meaningless comparison. Money is not available to NASA. It has to come out of NASA current budget levels
Were talking about advanced version of Nuclear Thermal Rockets (NTR).I'm not saying this is something congress could fund tomorrow. I'm saying its a promising technology thats been overlooked.
Fusion suffers many technological problems as well. First off there are currently no fusion reactors that have made more energy than they consume. Even if it does just obtaining any energy from fusion requires megawatt size laser and other complicated technology.
NSWP Is a doable project low cost program. ( more than the ISS, less than one year of us military spending)
Don't get me wrong I like fusion. Its probably the best way in the long run for manned interstellar travel. But its expensive, complecated and difficult. NSWP is cheap, simple and possible with near term (within 100 years) tech.
Could a MS reactor be made powerful enough for deep space use?
The storage of the nuclear material as described by wiki seems to be a major problem, I wonder if the concept would work as an accelerator driven system.