/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14608413
You couldn't scale up any simple Stirling cycle reactor, high power reactors have completely different design requirements and are far more complex. See this slide from a talk given by its creator.
>>14608436
The point of radioisotope batteries is that they're much lighter than a fission reactor, heavy shielding defeats the purpose even if they are dropped once in space. You may as well bring up a good power source that won't be worthless after a few years and is safe to be around.
>Muh REP
>Muh RTP
Cope, they're both trash which is why they've never been seriously considered before DARPA decided good nuclear propulsion is too hard.
>>14608448
I was going to mention that but that post was already long-winded. Tugs are mostly for rideshare as Starship could already move heavy payload around LEO and GTO just fine. A third stage could be expendable and fit within the payload bay, mostly it would be for probes leaving Earth.