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Article #7409Re: *** BUSSARD RAMSCOOP ***
From: Henry Spencer
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1993 17:31
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1993 17:31
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In article <1993Jan8.144819.1031@pixel.kodak.com> dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones) writes:
>You're just using the antimatter to heat hydrogen, so the rocket's
>efficiency is of the same order as the Nerva nuclear design: Isp = 850-1500
>or so, depending on how well it can be engineered.
Right premise, WRONG conclusion. Nerva's exhaust velocity (aka Isp) was
limited by the maximum temperature of its core materials. That is utterly
irrelevant to an antimatter rocket. Gaseous-core fission rockets, which
are a more realistic comparison, appear to be capable of exhaust velocities
of hundreds or thousands of km/s (i.e., Isp in the 10000s or 100000s).
--
"God willing... we shall return." | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
-Gene Cernan, the Moon, Dec 1972 | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
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Newsgroups: sci.space Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!torn!utzoo!henry From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: *** BUSSARD RAMSCOOP *** Message-ID: <C0Jq0L.M08@zoo.toronto.edu> Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 17:31:32 GMT References: <C0IIG5.J1I.1@cs.cmu.edu> <1993Jan8.144819.1031@pixel.kodak.com> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 13