Gas Core Reactor Rocket

Gas Core Reactor Rocket

Gas core reactor rockets are a conceptual type of rocket that is propelled by the exhausted coolant of a gaseous fission reactor. The nuclear fission reactor core may be either a gas or plasma. They may be capable of creating specific impulses of 3,000–5,000 s (30 to 50 kN·s/kg, effective exhaust velocities 30 to 50 km/s) and thrust which is enough for relatively fast interplanetary travel. Heat transfer to the working fluid (propellant) is by thermal radiation, mostly in the ultraviolet, given off by the fission gas at a working temperature of around 25,000 °C.

Read more about Gas Core Reactor Rocket:  Theory of Operation, General Features of The Nuclear Reactor, Open Cycle Versus Closed Cycle, Magnetic Confinement, Impact of Rocket Acceleration, Neutronic Considerations, Technology Summary and Outlook

Famous quotes containing the words gas, core and/or rocket:

    When we can drain the Ocean into mill-ponds, and bottle up the Force of Gravity, to be sold by retail, in gas jars; then may we hope to comprehend the infinitudes of man’s soul under formulas of Profit and Loss; and rule over this too, as over a patent engine, by checks, and valves, and balances.
    Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)

    The threadbare trees, so poor and thin,
    They are no wealthier than I;
    But with as brave a core within
    They rear their boughs to the October sky.
    Poor knights they are which bravely wait
    The charge of Winter’s cavalry,
    Keeping a simple Roman state,
    Discumbered of their Persian luxury.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Along a parabola life like a rocket flies,
    Mainly in darkness, now and then on a rainbow.
    Andrei Voznesensky (b. 1933)