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Jeff Bell weighs in on the practicality for
nuclear-electric for a Mars-orbit sample-return mission. His verdict:
unless you're talking asteroid belt or beyond, not much point. And
troublesome for anything that should really get through the Van Allen belts
quickly - though SMART-1 shows it can be done slowly, for some
purposes.
He doesn't think it's perfect for JIMO either, but I
expect JIMO will make substantial use of slingshot trajectories, and Bell's
criticism may have assumed more direct trajectories. The main advantage of
nuclear-electric for JIMO, I always thought, was that it would enable propulsion
*near* Jupiter, to various moon orbits. JIMO is now expected to be
chemically propelled from Earth orbit, mainly out of concern for reducing the
chance of collisions. I.e., it's planned to not use nuclear-electric in
one phase precisely because it's nuclear-electric in another.
Putting JIMO into the same funding wedge as CEV might
still be the safest thing for it. If it turns out the public reaction to
putting a reactor in orbit dooms JIMO for a while, it might continue with
reduced funding until CEV-based scenarios prove out for putting the reactor
unfueled into a safe place, far out there, and getting plutonium to it safely,
and separately. Or it could be that they are both in the same laundry
disposal chute, ready to drop when the body politic lets go. Wish I
knew.
-michael turner
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- Constellation and Prometheus - Uncomfortable Bedfellows LARRY KLAES
- Michael Turner
