why heck have nuclear powered ion engines not been developed for interplanetary space travel yet we're still in the stone age when it comes to space and nobody seems to give a heck

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Anonymous Thu Dec 13 16:25:34 2018 No.10212878 [Reply] [Original]

why heck have nuclear powered ion engines not been developed for interplanetary space travel yet

we're still in the stone age when it comes to space and nobody seems to give a heck

>>	Anonymous Thu Dec 13 17:11:43 2018 No.10212995 >>10212878 Comfort, mostly. Still, some good people, (and some very, VERY bad people) have interests in the stars for resources.

Anonymous Thu Dec 13 20:01:50 2018 No.10213387

>>10212878
Cosmos 1867 used a nuclear reactor to power ion engines. Development stalled because the cold war ended. Possibly also because of all the incidents involved operating the reactors. They have leaked at least 0.1 metric tons of radioactive coolant, a debris more than rad hazard, interfered with gamma ray astronomy satellites, and even contaminated canada with radioactive debris. NASA wanted to develop a nuclear reactor for ion powered space battleship to invade, I mean, explore Europa. It was cancelled due to the return to Moon program, which never happened. There's the kilopower reactor, but that hasn't been able to fly yet. Some NASA policy watchdogs are actually investigating why it's so expensive for NASA to develop nuclear reactors. NASA needs to do more reactor development according to policy watchdogs because ISRU needs a lot of power and it's too risky for private companies to do(no market) + private companies could really make use of it.

>>	Anonymous Thu Dec 13 20:04:00 2018 No.10213390 >>10212878 We spend half our budget on gibs for browns so they will vote the right way. We don't have anything left for great engineering projects.

>>	Anonymous Fri Dec 14 11:30:17 2018 No.10214757 >>10212878 Space travel is a meme until we have the means to alter extra-terrestrial environments to be comfortable.

>>	Anonymous Fri Dec 14 13:23:11 2018 No.10214942 convention says no nukes in space, thats why

>>	Anonymous Fri Dec 14 23:03:07 2018 No.10216231 >>10212878 There's no place like home and there's no reason to bother with space too much outside of asteroid deflection.

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