Re: Atomic ramjet for exploring Titan

On Mar 21, 7:52 am, Van Chocstraw <boobooililili...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Jeff Findley wrote:
"Van Chocstraw" <boobooililili...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:bO6dnaAMg-XmMF_UnZ2dnUVZ_gALAAAA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rick Jones wrote:
Frogwatch <ohara...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In the late 50s and early 60s, the USA had "Project Pluto" a nuclear
reactor powered ramjet whereby a reactor directly heated incoming
air to provide thrust.  It could be capable of flying for months but
emitted a lot of radiation, maybe even a lethal dose to anything
nearby.
So, say we want to explore Titan completely from the air, we drop a
Pluto style ramjet into the atmosphere of Titan where it flies
around for months sending back data. At the end of its life, we
could simply allow it to crash OR we could use onboard solid rockets
to accelerate it to escape velocity from Titan and allow it to
either go in orbit about Saturn or to drop into Saturns atmosphere.
Such a flying machine might be just what we need to explore Venus
too.  The dense atmosphere would allow for fairly low speed flight
there.
Apart from a present lack of humans, why would it be any better for a
nuclear reactor to be spewing radiation into the atmosphere of Titan
or Venus than it would be for Earth?
The sun is spewing much more radiation than a jump engine would.

Apples and oranges.  Not all radiation is the same.  There is a world of
difference between visible light radiation and, say, gamma radiation.

The whole argument is awfully silly though.  If engineers can't build and
fly nuclear ramjets on earth, how can engineers design, build, and test one
to fly on Titan?  Not to mention the hazard of launching the thing.
Launching RTG's encased in protective cases designed to withstand a launch
accident and subsequent reentry is not the same thing as nuclear reactors.

Jeff

You don't think the sun puts out gamma radiation? Think again. Just
because the earth's magnetic field and atmosphere filter it out don't
mean it's not there.

--
<<//--------------------\\>>
        Van Chocstraw
 >>\\--------------------//<<

Our moon puts out a thousand fold more gamma than does our sun. The
sun is certainly worthy of X-rays and UV a/b/c, plus a random shot of
gamma only now and then whenever there's a substantial halo CME.
Otherwise our sun is kind of passive.

With our magnetosphere failing us at -.05%/year, it's a good thing
that most CMEs are not directed at us. Unfortunately, our Selene/moon
isn't gamma or X-ray passive.

~ BG
.

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