- #1
Bab5space
- 111
- 12
This is not a spaceflight based forum, so I do not expect all to be familiar with Zubrin's nuclear saltwater rocket concept. Basically a rocket that uses plutonium or uranium salts in water to start a nuclear chain reaction which is supposed to happen somehow outside the engine (as it is getting expelled as exhaust?).
The result is to combine the TWR of the nuclear pusher plate concept (AKA Project Orion, a relic of the Cold War) with the constant thrust of a rocket.
Scifi can improve on that and here is where discussion comes:
Imagine a rocket reaction chamber that literally detonates a nuke inside. And shoots it out the nozzle.
Just assume the engine and nozzle are strengthened by strong force manipulation or something.
Would not the nuclear blast shot out the nozzle into the atmosphere look like a giant plume?
Morphing into an ice cream cone as it expands with a shockwave?
Discuss.
The result is to combine the TWR of the nuclear pusher plate concept (AKA Project Orion, a relic of the Cold War) with the constant thrust of a rocket.
Scifi can improve on that and here is where discussion comes:
Imagine a rocket reaction chamber that literally detonates a nuke inside. And shoots it out the nozzle.
Just assume the engine and nozzle are strengthened by strong force manipulation or something.
Would not the nuclear blast shot out the nozzle into the atmosphere look like a giant plume?
Morphing into an ice cream cone as it expands with a shockwave?
Discuss.