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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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”