[AR] Re: Nuclear Hydrogen Thruster
- From: Craig Fink <webegood@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2018 19:21:49 -0500
On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 5:29 PM Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 9 Jun 2018, Craig Fink wrote:
If gaseous hydrogen can be pumped out of the propellant storage tank for
a month long mid-course correction burn...
Even with an arcjet, midcourse corrections wouldn't take anywhere near
that long. (Arcjets are not like ion engines, they have quite significant
thrust.) Do the numbers, please.
You missed the part about powering this arcjet with a nuclear battery with
300 watts tops and some of that used elsewhere. The month long burn is
really to gather and store the energy in the superconducting magnet storage
ring. The engine runs in only short bursts.
You want some numbers, ok. Lifetime of a nuclear battery 50 years with 40
of those a thrusting from object to object in the Kepler Belt. That's 40
years averaging at half the power 150 watts for 350,000 hours or about 50
Megawatt-hours
Energy budge is 50 Megawatt-hours added to 100 kg of propellant, ah gees I
don't have a feel for that. How about metric, 1.8 gigajoule per kilogram of
propellant? Sure sounds like a lot. Could you check my math, please. It
could be wrong.
I get the feeling your right Henry. Arcjets aren't ion engines. Maybe an
ion engine would be better at these energy levels.
Does anybody have a feel for ion engines energy consumption per kilogram
propellant? Or, if an ion engine can be run in a pulse mode?
I can't imagine what kind of paperwork would be involved in purchasing a
chunk of plutonium for the nuclear battery...
Actually, none at all, because you can't. :-) There are no commercial
suppliers, period. The only organizations which have any are the US and
Russian governments
Russians? Ah, those Russians use a different kind of paperwork, Rubles!
I can't imagine the amount Russian paperwork that would be involved in
purchasing a chunk of plutonium for a nuclear battery.
Ahh, forget it, I'm sure there would be an equal pile of paper that customs
would require to import it.
--
Craig Fink
WeBeGood@xxxxxxxxx
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