March 24, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Today’s podcast of my appearance on the John Batchelor Show is embedded below the fold. Russia, North and South Korea, China, and of course American commercial were on the agenda.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
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Today’s podcast of my appearance on the John Batchelor Show is embedded below the fold. Russia, North and South Korea, China, and of course American commercial were on the agenda.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
Great segment!
For the NERVA program, in brief, they use a mini cylindrical reactor core & then run hydrogen through it to produce thrust.
As near as I understand it all– they utilize the same methodology as “normal” rocket engines, to power supply turbines, cool the engine chamber, & what-not, so once the reactor heats up enough, it becomes a self-sustaining cycle.
They use control-rods around the reactor core to control the reactor heat output. (no “giant matches or spark generators” required!)
Downside is the engine & component’s become highly radioactive & can’t be easily serviced outside of a glove-box.
(maybe best used for transporting a lot of mass, quickly, ahead of a manned-mission?)
It’s really ingenious– just hope we don’t have to pay twice for re-doing the research if we ever get back into it. For my rocket-scientist/engineering bud’s; I finally get the whole specific-impulse-second, ‘thang. Up to twice the level of chemical engines.
(I only play a rocket-scientist on the internet! “It’s all clear to me now, something wonderful is going to happen…”)
Hi Wayme, this video fits to your comment:
Nuclear Propulsion In Space 1968 NERVA Manned Mars mission NASA video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b18HtG0DOCM
Matt:
Thanks– that’s a great video.
For a short (60 page) text on all the NERVA engines/projects;
Google: “Nuclear Propulsion for Space LOC card catalog # 79-171030”