"Let's Nuke Mars" Russia says

I think this is cool news. If we build the rocket together with the international community, we can get there much faster and with far less money. Its time to continue space flight with eachother because if we keep going at for each country, wars will be much larger
 
I was thinking the same thing, it'd be such a nice thing if we could approach this 'space' thing together.
 
I imagine many space craft in the future will have multiple types of engines. ION, conventional and nuclear. also its relatively unsafe to keep using nuclear propulsion, so I hope we find a cleaner way to travel in the future
 
hai guize i tink you hav no idea haw ION engines work?

you need a power source to propel the ions. now we use either battery, solar or the already used RTG.

for nuclear propulsion see project Orion.

you see, no gravity and air resistance space travel is a bitch. basically the speed you accelerate to eventually will have to be decelerated if you don't have any atmospheric planets near by or some other form of deceleration you need to spend the same amount of energy to decelerate. so basically ion engines can accelerate to enormous speeds but using them to decelerate is a very boring process, because you'd have to start decelerating at half of your trip to eventually come to a stop.

nuclear impulse propulsion...in terms of propulsion it's very effective but it has it's engineering difficulties amongst others.
 
jverne said:
for nuclear propulsion see project Orion.
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For a second I thought that was what this was about. For those who don't know, you blow up a small nuke behind a rocket every second or so, pushing it forward.
 
A ship for long trips through the solar system would not only need efficient propulsion, but also a means to simulate gravity.
 
Remus said:
A ship for long trips through the solar system would not only need efficient propulsion, but also a means to simulate gravity.
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They'll just have to take your mom along for the ride.

Sorry, I had to.
 
Remus said:
A ship for long trips through the solar system would not only need efficient propulsion, but also a means to simulate gravity.
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well, that could be arranged with a 20m spinning ring. everyone should spend some amount of hours each day in it to train the body.


6Three said:
They'll just have to take your mom along for the ride.

Sorry, I had to.
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ahahhaa...that's the most scientific mom joke i heard until now.
 
jverne said:
wha?



wha?char
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Did you read the article?

It said that they're planning to use the nuclear reactor to power an "electric rocket". I'm wondering how a rocket works on electricity alone, since the article implies that the reactor is just there to supply energy.
 
Apocalypse89 said:
Did you read the article?

It said that they're planning to use the nuclear reactor to power an "electric rocket". I'm wondering how a rocket works on electricity alone, since the article implies that the reactor is just there to supply energy.
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aha...then you should read my post.
 
Apocalypse89 said:
Did you read the article?

It said that they're planning to use the nuclear reactor to power an "electric rocket". I'm wondering how a rocket works on electricity alone, since the article implies that the reactor is just there to supply energy.
Click to expand...

As far as I know the "electric rocket" is another name used for the ion engine.
 
Apocalypse89 said:
Did you read the article?

It said that they're planning to use the nuclear reactor to power an "electric rocket". I'm wondering how a rocket works on electricity alone, since the article implies that the reactor is just there to supply energy.
Click to expand...

The article is a bit weak, so I did some more research.

Previous Russian nuclear rocket design proposals involved nuclear thermal engines, which superheat hydrogen gas in a reactor and eject it out the rocket nozzle. The design of this rocket, on the other hand, is to simply generate power with a nuclear reactor, and use the electricity to power an electric rocket (such as a plasma engine, or an ion engine). In general, these engines are more efficient than nuclear thermal engines, but less efficient than nuclear pulse propulsion.

Advantages of nuclear electric propulsion include the ability to control thrust vectoring (you can turn the thrust on and off, and redirect electricity to one of several engines if you'd like), the long time for acceleration (you could accelerate halfway to mars, turn around, and decelerate to an intercept with Mars in just over one month, as opposed to a single-shot chemical engine, which would require six months.) If thrust was sufficient, it would also provide some semblance of artificial gravity on the ship.

Disadvantages of nuclear electric propulsion include carrying fuel with you the entire trip, as opposed to just the launch, the need for a seperate Earth-to-orbit rocket engine (nuclear electric engines do not have enough thrust to take off from Earth's surface),the massive power requirements, and the relatively low thrust overall.

Similar proposals were made by the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the space race. The USSR's initial plan was to send a team to the moon on a conventional rocket, which would then have a second, possibly manned stage using a nuclear electric engine which would go on to fly by Mars and return to Earth (this rocket exploded spectacularly on the launch pad during testing.) The U.K. made a proposal for a nuclear-electric vehicle called "Daedaleus," which would use Fusion power rather than a Fission reactor. The U.S is currently developing a space craft propulsion system for a probe to Europa using a nuclear reactor and several ion engines.

In short, this is nothing new. What IS new is that the Russians are committed to funding this project. What usually happens in Russia is, the beuracracy gives the Russian space agency the ability to come up with as many crazy research ideas as they can -- the space agency then comes up with detailed, incredibly far-fetched plans for space stations and space colonization, and then they try to get private investors to fund the project (and they never get funding.) It is extremely rare for one of these "reach" projects to get official funding from the Russian government.
 
Remus said:
As far as I know the "electric rocket" is another name used for the ion engine.
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That's possible, but it might also be using a plasma engine like VASMIR, or some other electric propulsion method. Something tells me the Russians have developed plans for the reactor and the ship design, but lack designs on the engine.
 
everything uses electrons, therefore everything is electric.

Warped's physics 101
 
theotherguy said:
No. For instance, neutron radiation, plasma, and alpha particles do not contain electrons.
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Don't bother. It's Warped you're correcting. You'll note it's his own version of physics, just as he believes that ships will automatically speed up when they leave the effect of the Sun's gravity.
 
Why the hell do we need manned missions to mars? Robots can do the same shit much better than humans at a fraction of the cost.
 
as an american you should know better than non americans as to why a manned mission to another planet is important to national pride ..even though a robot mission would be far cheaper, safer and delivered sooner
 
CptStern said:
as an american you should know better than non americans as to why a manned mission to another planet is important to national pride ..even though a robot mission would be far cheaper, safer and delivered sooner
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As an american I know we gain national pride by bombing countries. Manned missions to mars are pussy shit.

But seriously I don't understand the need for our governments to satisfy our stupid emotions. Who gives a shit about national pride? I only care about the advances in science that result from such missions; and robotic instead of manned missions pay off much better in that regard.
 
No Limit said:
As an american I know we gain national pride by bombing countries. Manned missions to mars are pussy shit.
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this made me lol but then made me :( because I realised it's true

No Limit said:
But seriously I don't understand the need for our governments to satisfy our stupid emotions. Who gives a shit about national pride? I only care about the advances in science that result from such missions; and robotic instead of manned missions pay off much better in that regard.
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everyone wants to be first. however the complexities may necessitate a pooling of resources. an international mission is probably the best bet
 
Warped said:
and the percentage of these in our local solar system are??
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The sun is made up of 98% ionized plasma (that is, simply protons and neutrons, with free electrons). The sun makes up 99.86% of the mass of the solar system.

So, as a lower bound, about 97.8% of the total mass of the solar system.

That isn't to say the sun is completely without electrons, the electrons are moving freely throughout the sun and aren't attached to protons. Nevertheless, they make up a negligible amount of its mass as compared to the ionized plasma.
 
No Limit said:
As an american I know we gain national pride by bombing countries. Manned missions to mars are pussy shit.

But seriously I don't understand the need for our governments to satisfy our stupid emotions. Who gives a shit about national pride? I only care about the advances in science that result from such missions; and robotic instead of manned missions pay off much better in that regard.
Click to expand...

You also have to take into account that our ultimate goal of manned missions is to place a colony on Mars. We cannot properly prepare for a colony if we simply send robots. We must send people to gauge the long-term habitability of the planet and also the viability of our equipment there. There is science to do, correct, but there is also the goal of permanent settlement of interplanetary space.
 
theotherguy said:
You also have to take into account that our ultimate goal of manned missions is to place a colony on Mars. We cannot properly prepare for a colony if we simply send robots. We must send people to gauge the long-term habitability of the planet and also the viability of our equipment there. There is science to do, correct, but there is also the goal of permanent settlement of interplanetary space.
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But is that really a realistic goal right now? What is the point of setting up bases on the moon or on mars right now? Unless under the martian sand there is nothing but pure gold I say we stay on earth for a while longer.
 
No Limit said:
But is that really a realistic goal right now? What is the point of setting up bases on the moon or on mars right now? Unless under the martian sand there is nothing but pure gold I say we stay on earth for a while longer.
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When else are we going to do it? We should have done it in the 70's or 80's.
 
No Limit said:
But is that really a realistic goal right now? What is the point of setting up bases on the moon or on mars right now? Unless under the martian sand there is nothing but pure gold I say we stay on earth for a while longer.
Click to expand...
We'll be up to 9 billion people in another 50 years won't we?

We're overpopulating this lovely planet because you selfish assholes keep having children. YEs YOU. I'm talking about you. Oh it's so cute and lovey dovey those little shit machines grow to drive ozone killing cars and burn massess of coal to fuel their hedonistic lifestyles. You bastards.

So yes, we have to get our assses to mars...get our asses to mars..get our asses to mars. We don't know what mysteries await us in the sands of mars. Ancient cities, the remains of extinct creatures. The future of humanity is not on earth.
 
Mr-Fusion said:
We'll be up to 9 billion people in another 50 years won't we?

We're overpopulating this lovely planet because you selfish assholes keep having children. YEs YOU. I'm talking about you. Oh it's so cute and lovey dovey those little shit machines grow to drive ozone killing cars and burn massess of coal to fuel their hedonistic lifestyles. You bastards.

So yes, we have to get our assses to mars...get our asses to mars..get our asses to mars. We don't know what mysteries await us in the sands of mars. Ancient cities, the remains of extinct creatures. The future of humanity is not on earth.
Click to expand...

Overpopulation is not a good reason to explore Mars. Mass emigration to Mars is not feasible with any foreseeable technology. If Mars is to be settled, it will be settled by fewer than 100 people at an extreme expense.
 
Mr-Fusion said:
We'll be up to 9 billion people in another 50 years won't we?

We're overpopulating this lovely planet because you selfish assholes keep having children. YEs YOU. I'm talking about you. Oh it's so cute and lovey dovey those little shit machines grow to drive ozone killing cars and burn massess of coal to fuel their hedonistic lifestyles. You bastards.

So yes, we have to get our assses to mars...get our asses to mars..get our asses to mars. We don't know what mysteries await us in the sands of mars. Ancient cities, the remains of extinct creatures. The future of humanity is not on earth.
Click to expand...


^What he said...but of course as others have mentioned the future lies in private and corporate investment.
 
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