/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14565749

>>12249931
Using it for a reusable transorbital shuttle would've been awesome and enabled the delivery of large large (40-ton+) payloads to the lunar surface with one saturn V launch's worth of propellant.

>>12249953
The version that would have flown in space would have had around double the specific impulse of an RS-25. The ISP is higher because you have only hydrogen in your exhaust instead of heavier products like water from hydrolox.

Also NERVA is a closed-cycle reactor where the reaction mass isn't being shot THROUGH a reactor - just heated by it. The real limit on its ISP is how hot you can get the reactor without melting it, not unlike the problem with controlled fusion reactors.