http://spacefellowship.com/2009/10/28/russia-develops-spaceship-with-nuclear-engine/

If only I was joking.

Bring on the Klingons!

Space cruiser, PAK-FA, 6 carriers. Russia is doing pretty well ... .



When I was young I used to pray for a bike, then I realized that God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness.

In fairness, I suspect much of the ground work was already done by the SU years ago, and it is now it's a matter of proving the concepts with computerized modeling mostly.   

A nuclear rocket sounds kinda scary to me lol. I wouldn't want to be sitting right on top of an engine that's setting off controlled nuclear explosions lol. It's gonna take some serious shielding to keep the crew safe from radiation also. I'm sure the Russians will figure it out, but you're not putting ME on an A-bomb propelled spaceship lol.






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"Made from 100% Quality Korean Genes"

Well, I don't believe setting out nukes in outer space would augment the radiation level significantly... there you are exposed to direct radiation from the sun, there's no bigger nuke anywhere near us than that.

"Memento Audere Semper"

From what little the article says, it sounds like this is simply a Nuclear thermal rocket (NTR), wherein once in orbit the liquid propellant is run through a reactor and heated to achieve a higher specific impulse than is possible with chemical reactions. It is nothing like the SDI Timberwind or Orion projects from back in the day. If would in fact release very little, if any radiation. The US has been looking at similar systems for some time, though I don't believe any hardware has been built, and at present it sounds like NASA favors the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplama Rocket(VASIMR) system, which combines a megawatt class reactor and a plasma drive. The prototype for that on the otherhand is supposed to be ready for tests in the next few years, and I have heard rumors that a solar-powered version might be attached to the space station at some point to reduce the need for refueling missions/reboosting.


For those who are still concerned about polluting space with radiation.......please familiarize yourselves with cosmic rays, the Van Allen Belt, and the REAL reason why the Jovian moons are off limits to us(sorry, obligatory Space Odyssey reference). Also, do consider why we might possibly have x-ray and gamma-ray observatories in orbit.