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From: @S1-A.ARPA,@MIT-MC:DOLANTP@USC-ISI.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Nuclear Rockets
Message-ID: <1870@mordor.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-May-85 21:07:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: mordor.1870
Posted: Fri May 17 21:07:53 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 19-May-85 06:33:48 EDT
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From: DOLANTP@USC-ISI.ARPA

The United States began research into using nuclear power for rocket
propulsion back in the late 1950s.  Back then, it seemed that the power
which could be generated using nuclear means was a lot more promising than
chemical rockets.
  Project Orion went through several design stages, one of the more interest-
ing of which called for a 300-foot-tall vehicle with a combustion containment
chamber made of 1/2-inch steel.  This chamber was supposed to be 150 feet
in diameter, and small (0.1 kiloton) nuclear devices would be exploded in
the center of the chamber.  Thrust would be generated via water injection
into the chamber, and subsequent vaporization.
  The Project Kiwi engines reportedly could have powered a vehicle into low
earth orbit, and showed some promise.  However, if you remember the years
(early 1960s) of these experiments, we had a sudden push to get a man on the
Moon in a hurry.  The nuclear rocket research was not progressing fast
enough, so funds were redirected to more conventional means of propulsion.
  Another attempt at nuclear propulsion sources was the Air Force attempt to
make a nuclear airplane.  General Electric actually did make a prototype
reactor which drove two turbine engines, and in the early 1960s USAF
predicted that their first nuclear airplane would fly by 1965.  It didn't.
  Most of the action was generated by a fear that we had to get these devices
flying before the Soviets did.  When it became obvious that neither side was
making progress, the urgency subsided.
  This research could probably make the basis of an interesting book, if any-
one cared to write it.

                         Tom Dolan
                         Naval Postgraduate School
                         Monterey, CA

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