What's crazy about it? It appears to be more promising than anything else for
interstellar travel, unless we discover the reactionless drive that many have
proposed. But there is no reactionless drive yet. So why not try this?
Furthermore, I think there might be a major improvement possible unless I'm
missing something. How about using thorium salt water instead of uranium? You
could start the engine with the lowest isotope concentration of uranium salt
that would start and maintain a reaction. Then when the reaction is well
established make the transition to the thorium salt water. In other words, you
would have a uranium "pilot light".
A large container of thorium salt solution wouldn't need anything to absorb
neutrons and would be inherently stable, thereby avoiding the possibility of
catastrophic failure. The uranium salt could be kept in far smaller quantities
and would only be used to start the reaction.
I doubt this engine would ever be built, but it's fun to speculate.
On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, 02:47:45 PM GMT, H LV <[email protected]>
wrote:
The Nuclear Salt Water Rocket - Possibly the Craziest Rocket Engine Ever
Imagined.
https://youtu.be/cvZjhWE-3zM
<<The Nuclear Salt Water Rocket is a rocket engine concept that uses a rapid
nuclear reaction in a Uranium salt dissolved in water to create a high thrust,
high efficiency engine which eclipses the performance of any rocket engine ever
designed. It's a concept originally presented by Robert Zubrin, which is
appealing because it looks more scientifically plausible than many other
futuristic propulsion concepts.>>
