Number one - the issue is not whether or not to have nuclear power (there are 436 nuclear power plants operational worldwide, most of which went online between the 1970's and 1990's - check the www.nrc.gov and other sources). It's not even whether or not to have nuclear power in space (the Cassini probe did that years ago). For the short 10-20 minutes the reactor would be in atmospheric flight from the launchpad to LEO, the risk would be minimal. There are nuclear reactors in navy submarines and carriers, even fusion reactors scattered across the globe at various research labs. There is antimatter being used in medical scans every day (via the Positron Emission Tomography), which functions through controlled Matter-Antimatter collisions.
Number two - a spacecraft equipped with a Podkletnov artificial gravity/inertial cancellers would not be limited to a 1g delta v. Accelerations would be limited only by the energy levels produced by the drive (in this case I think we were discussing a beam core antimatter drive). As for testing, of COURSE it would be tested! My God above!
Number three - regarding the relative danger of a nuclear-powered or m/ar-powered craft, the last I checked, the space program is a volunteer organization, at least in America. Noone is forced to be put in these dangerous situations. Yet, if we do not take great risk, we will not acheive great things.
Number four - the Energia was just an example given. I could just as easily have suggested a Proton booster rocket. The point was that booster rockets could assist the VentureStar into LEO.
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Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Irishman: [QB]For the short 10-20 minutes the reactor would be in atmospheric flight from the launchpad to LEO, the risk would be minimal.
And only slightly increased by the ignition of many thousands of tons of chemical explosives directly underneath it? Sure, that's the ticket!
And I take it you've got an extremely short memory for you to forget that reentry can be a dangerous time too. Take a look at some of the news footage of the Columbia going down. They found debris from the shuttle across an area 380 by 230 miles -- that's 87,400 square miles. Would you want to risk the possibility of a nuclear reactor traveling at Mach 18 and raining down on your civilian population? I think not.
quote:the last I checked, the space program is a volunteer organization, at least in America. Noone is forced to be put in these dangerous situations.
I'm talking about the danger to bystanders, not the crew themselves.
Look, I have the same sentiments as you -- we need to keep pushing out into space, we need a motivated volunteer astronaut corps, and so forth. But I think you're vastly overestimating both our practical technological capabilities and the government's ability to put it to use.
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quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: Davok: Just 9 volts? I'd love to see a link to corrobrate that -- if so, it'd be amazing!
Sorry, I don't have a link. But keep in mind that 1012 hydrogen atoms would weigh no more than 10–15 g.
quote:Originally posted by Cartman: What happens when a Penning Trap full of shall we say slightly explosive antimatter collapses while aboard one?
Actually, not much. The probability for a proton and an antiproton to annihilate each other isn't that high if you don't confine them into a reaction chamber. And even if they annihilated, they wouldn't immediately become gamma rays (like electrons would) ... they'd rather decay into pions, which would leave your spacecraft without interacting with the "normal" matter.
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: Would you want to risk the possibility of a nuclear reactor traveling at Mach 18 and raining down on your civilian population? I think not.
Of course you would have to wait until the reactor is in LEO before making it critical... and you'd have to put it into a capsule that could survive catatstrophic reentry without breaking or becoming critical. I think all that is technically possible, but it would still be very, very hard to convince the public.
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