Re: 39 days to Mars possible now with nuclear-powered VASIMR.

From	Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de>
Newsgroups	sci.space.policy, sci.astro, sci.physics, rec.arts.sf.science
Subject	Re: 39 days to Mars possible now with nuclear-powered VASIMR.
Date	2015-10-31 12:32 +0000
Organization	news.netcologne.de
Message-ID	<n12cd5$jvh$1@newsreader4.netcologne.de> (permalink)
References	(4 earlier) <muuo8n$u15$1@newsreader4.netcologne.de> <mv70sl$8ka$2@dont-email.me> <mvlrph$69l$1@newsreader4.netcologne.de> <mvrnij$in6$2@dont-email.me> <n0v0cf$58v$2@dont-email.me>

Cross-posted to 4 groups.

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Robert Clark <rgregoryclark@gmSPAMBLOACKail.com> schrieb:

> Nuclear powered VASIMR and plasma propulsion doable now, Page 3: High 
> efficiency conversion enables zero radiator mass.
> http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2015/10/nuclear-powered-vasimr-and-plasma_27.html

A concept you describe there is to have a nozzle with a very large
expansion (to low temperatures) and then using that exhaust as
an outlet for the heat generated by the reactor.

Sounds nice as described, but, as described, it leaves a large
gap - what sort of heat exchanger are you proposing.

Think about what would happen to a pipe perpendicular to a
flow of supersonic gas from the nozzle.  You would get deceleration
of the gas (bad for your specific impulse), you would get compression
of the gas and a lot of compression heating, similar to what a
capsule experiences on reentry.

Letting the gas flow along a wall would lead to boundary layers with
similar effects of dissipative heating.

What sort of design do you have in mind?

Thread

Re: 39 days to Mars possible now with nuclear-powered VASIMR. "Robert Clark" <rgregoryclark@gmSPAMBLOACKail.com> - 2015-10-16 16:46 -0400
  Re: 39 days to Mars possible now with nuclear-powered VASIMR. "Robert Clark" <rgregoryclark@gmSPAMBLOACKail.com> - 2015-10-30 01:51 -0400
    Re: 39 days to Mars possible now with nuclear-powered VASIMR. Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> - 2015-10-31 12:32 +0000
      Re: 39 days to Mars possible now with nuclear-powered VASIMR. "Robert Clark" <rgregoryclark@gmSPAMBLOACKail.com> - 2015-11-08 09:12 -0500
        Re: 39 days to Mars possible now with nuclear-powered VASIMR. Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> - 2015-11-08 14:36 +0000
          Re: 39 days to Mars possible now with nuclear-powered VASIMR. "Robert Clark" <rgregoryclark@gmSPAMBLOACKail.com> - 2015-11-12 13:19 -0500

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