Fuel for Russia’s nuclear space engine
The competition heats up: According to Russian press sources, the first fuel for that country’s nuclear space engine project has now been delivered to Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy corporation.
The article is very unclear whether this space engine is a nuclear power plant similar to those used by NASA’s deep space Voyager, Pioneer, and Cassini probes, or whether it is a real nuclear-powered engine designed to provide thrust. Russia has never launched a probe with the former, so that would be an advancement for them, but it would not be a game-changer in the exploration of the solar system. If the latter, however, it will give them the capability no one else has to travel quickly and more efficiently to other worlds.
Based on a careful rereading of the article, I suspect the former.
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The competition heats up: According to Russian press sources, the first fuel for that country’s nuclear space engine project has now been delivered to Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy corporation.
The article is very unclear whether this space engine is a nuclear power plant similar to those used by NASA’s deep space Voyager, Pioneer, and Cassini probes, or whether it is a real nuclear-powered engine designed to provide thrust. Russia has never launched a probe with the former, so that would be an advancement for them, but it would not be a game-changer in the exploration of the solar system. If the latter, however, it will give them the capability no one else has to travel quickly and more efficiently to other worlds.
Based on a careful rereading of the article, I suspect the former.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
–Have a nice little 60 page booklet, “Nuclear Propulsion for Space,” from the Understanding the Atom Series, USAEC. Oak Ridge, TN. (1971 rev)
[William R. Corliss & Francis C. Schwenk]
Library of Congress card catalog number 79-171030
>It HAS been Google-ized, digitized, & available on-line.
Describes the “Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application” program (NERVA) of NASA & AEC.
–Is this the type of technology to which you refer? (as opposed to ion-engines?)
Now… I wonder why we stopped investigating all this?? It wasn’t for technical-reasons, so it had to have been a political decision.
We spent a considerable amount on research & producing test-engines at the “Nuclear Rocket & Development Station, Nevada.”
—References in general details the “PeeWee,” “Phoebus,” “Pluto,” & “Poodle” “nuclear rocket test engines & reactor-components.” Pictures, diagrams, results, factoids.
–There is, as well a Technical Reading list with 6 References & 4 different films produced on contract with NASA, AEC, and “Aerojet-General Corp.”
>>The AEC produced 50 different Titles as part of their “Understanding the Atom Series.” All free at the time, & you could order 15 of them at the Visitors Center at the Oak Ridge National Lab. (I just found mine a few months ago. They are dated, but very interesting & from a time when we had infinitely more Hope & Trust for all things Nuclear.)
Found two of the films from “NERVA”!
“NASA Project ROVER NERVA Nuclear Rocket Engine testing”
11 minutes
https://youtu.be/GmxPRCyR-Co
Nuclear Propulsion In Space (1968)
22 minutes
https://youtu.be/MyshQ_Tg830