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A nuclear pulse drive starship powered by fusion-antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion units would be similarly in the 10% range and pure Matter-antimatter annihilation rockets would be theoretically capable of obtaining a velocity between 50% and 80% of the speed of light. In each case saving fuel for slowing down halves the maximum speed.
Project Orion was the first serious attempt to design a nuclear pulse rocket. A design was formed at General Atomics during the late 1950s and early 1960s, with the idea of reacting small directional nuclear explosives utilizing a variant of the Teller–Ulam two-stage bomb design against a large steel pusher plate attached to the spacecraft ...
Project Orion, first engineering design study of nuclear pulse (i.e., atomic explosion) propulsion [10] Project Daedalus , 1970s British Interplanetary Society study of a fusion rocket Project Longshot , US Naval Academy -NASA nuclear pulse propulsion design
In the case of solid rocket motors, the fuel and oxidizer are combined when the motor is cast. Propellant combustion occurs inside the motor casing, which must contain the pressures developed. Solid rockets typically have higher thrust, less specific impulse , shorter burn times, and a higher mass than liquid rockets, and additionally cannot be ...
The ablation data collected for various materials and the distances the spheres were propelled, serve as the bedrock for the nuclear pulse propulsion study, Project Orion. [58] The direct use of nuclear explosives, by using the impact of ablated propellant plasma from a nuclear shaped charge acting on the rear pusher plate of a ship, was and ...
NASA will test a nuclear-powered rocket for space travel. The technology could speed up a manned trip to Mars from the current seven-month minimum to 45 days.
In June 2000, Andrews Space concluded a Phase I NASA Small Business Innovation Research project on an iteration of the original Project Orion concept termed MagOrion. MagOrion introduced the use of a large, 2 km diameter, superconducting ring to interact with the plasma debris of the nuclear explosive pulses; replacing the mechanically dampened pusher plate of the original Project Orion concept.
The R-MAD Facility was built to support the nuclear rocket program and was operational from 1959 through 1970. It was used to assemble reactor engines and to disassemble and study reactor parts and fuel elements after reactor tests. [5] Project Rover was successful, but ultimately canceled.