ttkciar t1_j5r0fbe wrote
Excellent. It's way past time.
NTP research never should have been stopped in the first place.
(Edited to correct typo)
Underhill42 t1_j5vs4at wrote
I think a big issue was simply that using an NTP on Earth is a really, really bad idea - I seem to recall hearing of an idea from that era of flying one over the USSR to essentially carpet-dirty-bomb them into submission.
And off Earth... we haven't had any national interest in doing that. The moon race was good cold-war propaganda and ritualized combat... bringing nukes into it was exactly what we were trying to avoid. Going to other planet's though? Where's the profit, power, or security in that? Especially after determining that the moon was just a big dead rock we were nowhere close to being ready to usefully colonize, and photos from the 1965 Mariner mission established that Mars was probably the same.
Yeah, the long-term dreams are inspirational - but it's likely to be generations before anything except mostly-automated asteroid mining (which was completely out of reach at the time) will be able to turn a profit, and colonialism is all about getting rich. Not having your great-grandkids get rich, assuming they can even maintain a position to cash out on your investment rather than someone else's grandkids being the ones to do so.
me_too_999 t1_j5s3x9q wrote
They stopped it because of an accident that caused super criticality, a massive radiation release.
Material, and nuclear science wasn't quite up to the task 50 years ago.
Spez, the deaths were a separate incident.
Correct_Inspection25 t1_j5s4wbg wrote
Got a reference? I think the early 1960s JSLAMM engine may have been canceled for that but the late 60s early 70s NERVA space test was axed by the Nixon Administration as part of budget cuts and descoping of the Saturn replacement down to just the shuttle/LEO. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA
Adeldor t1_j5s88se wrote
I'm unaware of any such accident with NERVA NTRs, but very much open to correction. Might you provide a reference?
me_too_999 t1_j5sex5v wrote
Looks like the deaths were from a separate incident, but here's a link I found.
Enorats t1_j5slki0 wrote
That.. sort of sounds like the plot to an alternate history novel I read years ago, not the actual history.
phasechanges t1_j5uji5k wrote
That was one of the plot points of "Voyage" by Stephen Baxter.
Enorats t1_j5up13e wrote
Yup. That was the one. The engine killed a few characters off after an accident during a test.
ttkciar t1_j5vzfc9 wrote
Pretty sure they stopped it because Soviet and American diplomats agreed that would ease international tensions, without really understanding what they were talking about.
me_too_999 t1_j5wok81 wrote
I still don't see fission powered jets at a commercial airport any time soon.
Maybe on Mars, in fact a fission rocket would good for 2nd stage payloads to the outer planets.
The future is fusion, and probably won't be any nuclear powered craft until then.
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