Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!brahms.udel.edu!garrett
From: garrett@chopin.udel.edu (Joel Garrett)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Ion Engines
Message-ID: <16851@chopin.udel.edu>
Date: 4 Apr 91 15:27:06 GMT
References: <3361@phred.UUCP> <1991Mar22.043009.5544@zoo <1991Mar25.184907.16454@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 20

I heard mention of something on the news about a new "secret" development as
part of the SDI program.  The report seemed to  indicate  some type of heavy-
lift launcher that was based upon "nuclear" technology...

Does anyone else have more information on this topic?  It seems to me that such
a launch system would cause more problems than it would solve.  Wouldn't the 
launch of a nuke-based system result in a lot of fallout/radiation?

I read an article in Smitshonian Air & Space a while ago that told the story
of a project called the Pluto, I believe, which would have been a nuclear-
powered ramjet cruise missile.  One part of the article kind of half-joked that
in wartime, one of these missiles wouldn't have to  carry a warhead, it could
just loiter over selected parts of enemy territory and deposit plenty of
radioactive materials as it went...

I'm hoping they aren't thinking of resurrecting this kind of stuff... I thought
the whole point behind SDI was to keep us  from getting irradiated in a
nuclear attack (maybe less radiated is a more realistic objective, but that's
another story...)  If we have launchers that are going to spread radiation on
launch of equipment to  stop a nuclear attack, then is this an improvement?