31–40 of 71 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. You're thinking of nuclear waste. Voyager's RTG lasted "only" a few decades.
Design choice, not an inherent constraint. Plutonium has a half life in excess of 25000 years
Presumably this is why Pu-238 is used for RTGs where power density matters; a half life of 87.7 years means a reasonably long working life using with only 1/3% of the mass compared to Pu-239.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
...at ground level.
Over enemy territory, ground-level flight was considered a feature, as the passing missile would shred the ground with sonic shockwaves, and bake it with radiation from its unshielded reactor. One of the most evil military designs ever conceived.
Reminds me of this “oopsie”:
> Three-quarters of the windows in an eight-block area of downtown were shattered by a sonic boom accidentally created by the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's flying aerobatic team
https://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/article_5e48d6a2-f6c...
They have also tried to use nuclear power for space propulsion. Here is a fun one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...
I guess the author gets paid by word count. The piece could have been written in one third of the length.
And a bad one at that. It is a redundancy nightmare.
To save your time:
"In 1951, the United States military initiated a program aimed at developing a nuclear-powered aircraft capable of unlimited range (ANP program).
The program’s goal was to create a nuclear reactor small enough to fit into an aircraft yet powerful enough to provide the necessary thrust while ensuring the safety of the crew from radiation.
General Electric (GE) initiated the HTRE (Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment) series to create and refine the technology necessary for integrating a nuclear reactor with a jet engine.
The reactor in the HTRE-1 was essentially a modified version of existing nuclear technology adapted for aviation use.
The HTRE-2 tested different configurations and setups to optimize the efficiency of the nuclear jet engine concept.
The HTRE-3 featured a more compact and efficient reactor design that was closer to what would be needed for actual aircraft implementation. The HTRE-3 incorporated a modified General Electric J47 turbojet engine, which was a well-known engine in military aircraft at that time. The HTRE-3’s design was sophisticated, involving a direct cycle in which the air passed directly through the reactor core, getting heated in the process and then expelled to generate thrust. Moreover, the HTRE-3 featured improved radiation shielding techniques
While the HTRE series ultimately did not result in operational nuclear-powered aircraft due to various strategic, technical, and ethical considerations, it significantly advanced the understanding of nuclear propulsion."
Here's another fun one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missil... An unmanned nuclear-powered ramjet designed to spew warheads, with a predicted range of 116,000 kilometers.
I see your GE HTRE-3 and raise you a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003994194&vi...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Design choice, not an inherent constraint. Plutonium has a half life in excess of 25000 years
> Design choice Presumably this is why Pu-238 is used for RTGs where power density matters; a half life of 87.7 years means a reasonably long working life using with only 1/3% of the mass compared to Pu-239.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
...at ground level.
Over enemy territory, ground-level flight was considered a feature, as the passing missile would shred the ground with sonic shockwaves, and bake it with radiation from its unshielded reactor. One of the most evil military designs ever conceived.
Of course, it going mach 3 at 1000 feet or lower, is going to knock your toupee right off.