Any news about nuclear powered propulsion systems for spacecraft ?

Question

well actually the ion-propulsion system is KNOWN
Are there any real alternatives which do NOT fall into the category of fiction ?

please don't torture the subject with the terms WARP-DRIVE, Element 115, UFO and 'faster than light'

I'm asking about serious stuff

Answer 1

Yes, there's a type of propulsion named Helios. A precursor concept to the Orion project, Helios is a spacecraft propulsion system that postulated detonating small, 0.1 kiloton nuclear bombs into a chamber roughly 130 feet in diameter. Water would be injected into the chamber, super-heated by the explosion and expelled for thrust. Like Orion, it would have achieved constant acceleration through rapid "pulsed" operation.
This design would have yielded a specific impulse of about 1150 seconds (compared to a modern chemical rocket’s 450 seconds). However, a number of technical problems arose, most prominently how to keep the combustion chamber from exploding from the great pressures of the atomic detonations.
The Helios propulsion system was originally conceived by Freeman Dyson

Answer 2

The Ion stuff is pretty much it right now. But anything that can convert energy from nuclear reaction into kinetic force eminating from the back of the craft would work. It just seems now that the stream of Ions is the best choice for it.

There's been some talk of solar "sails" that would be pushed by solar wind like the tail of a comet, but they would have to be inconcievably huge and would take forever to accelerate without assistance at launch from something like an Ion drive.

Answer 3

I do not know of any system that has reached the exciting point of actual production and manufacture. I concur with the gentleman who suggested powering the craft with bad news since it travels so fast. An alternative might be natural methane gas which could be generated by a team of on board cows, or having the regular crew shift over to a diet of beans.

Science fiction comes up with many interesting ideas which are merely ideas. So far, few if any have would up with substance.

Answer 4

NASA has used the ion engine and it work very good but the problem is the force is so small that it is in the sub lb. thrust area. Just doesn't move anything.

Answer 5

Yes, but by the time people really need these fuels -- nuclear fuel will have gone the same way as Oil.

It is all fiction until someone builds and flies one...

Answer 6

nuclear waste products. for some interesting reading google m2p2--with this type system we could get to Proxima Centari in 25-50yrs!

Answer 7

I would power the space craft with bad news, bad news travels very fast