Nuclear propulsion includes various propulsion methods that fulfill the atomic age promise by using some form of nuclear reaction as their primary resource. The idea of ​​using nuclear materials for propulsion dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903 it was hypothesized that radioactive materials, radium, might be a fuel suitable for engines to drive cars, boats, and planes. H. G. Wells took this idea in his 1914 fictional work The World Set Free .
Video Nuclear propulsion
Surface ships, submarines and torpedoes
The nuclear-powered ships are mainly military submarines, and aircraft carriers. Russia is the only country that currently has a nuclear-powered civilian sailing ship, mostly ice-breaking vessels but one is a container vessel. They use nuclear reactors as their power plants. For more detailed articles, see:
Civil maritime use
- Nuclear marine propulsion for civilian use
- List of civilian nuclear vessels
Military maritime use
- Nuclear Navy
- List of United States Navy reactors
- Soviet naval reactors
- Nuclear submarine
Torpedo
Channel One Television News Russia broadcast images and details of a nuclear-powered torpedo called Status-6 on about November 12, 2015. The torpedo is said to have a range of up to 10,000 km, sailing a speed of 100 knots, and an operating depth of up to 1000 meters below the surface. Torpedo carries 100 megaton nuclear warheads.
One suggestion that emerged in the summer of 1958 from the first meeting of a scientific advisory group that became JASON was for "nuclear-powered torpedoes that can roam the ocean almost without boundaries" .
Maps Nuclear propulsion
Aircraft and missiles
Research on nuclear-powered aircraft was pursued during the Cold War by the United States and the Soviet Union as they may allow a country to keep nuclear bombers in the air for a very long time, a useful tactic for nuclear deterrence. No country has created an operational nuclear aircraft. One design problem, never really solved, is the need for a heavy shield to protect the crew from radiation sickness. Since the advent of the ICBM in the 1960s, the aircraft's tactical gains were greatly reduced and each project was canceled. Because the technology is inherently dangerous, it is not considered in a non-military context. Nuclear-powered missiles were also scrutinized and discounted during the same period.
Airplane
- Convair X-6
- Myasishchev M-50 - Flight Week hoax
- Nuclear Propulsion Aircraft - General Electric Project to build nuclear-powered bombers
- Tupolev Tu-95LAL
Missile
- The Pluto project - which develops SLAM missiles, which use nuclear-powered air ramjet for propulsion
- An unnamed Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile announced by Vladimir Putin in 2018.
Spacecraft
Many types of nuclear propulsion have been proposed, and some of them (eg NERVA) are tested for spacecraft applications.
Nuclear pulse drive
- The Orion project, first design the engineering design of the nuclear pulse (ie, atomic explosion) propulsion
- Project Daedalus, 1970s, British Interplanetary Society study of fusion rockets
- Project Longshot, nuclear-pulsed nuclear-pulse propulsion design
- AIMStar, Antimatally catalyzed nucleotide nucleotide propellers using antiproton clouds to initiate fission and fusion in fuel pellets
- ICAN-II, the planned interplanetary spacecraft using an Antimatter-treated nuclear pulse-driving machine as the main form of propulsion External Pulsed Plasma Propulsion (EPPP), a propulsion concept by NASA that gets its impetus from plasma waves resulting from a series of small, fusion/supercritical fusion pulses behind objects in space.
Nuclear thermal rocket
- Nuclear Thermal Bimodal rockets perform nuclear fission reactions similar to those that are safe to use in nuclear power plants including submarines. Energy is used to heat liquid hydrogen propellant. Supporters of nuclear-powered spacecraft show that at the time of launch, almost no radiation is released from nuclear reactors. Nuclear-powered rockets are not used to lift the Earth. Nuclear thermal rockets can provide superior performance advantages compared to chemical propulsion systems. Nuclear resources can also be used to provide spacecraft with electric power for operations and scientific instrumentation.
- NERVA - NASA Nuclear Energy for Rocket Vehicle Applications, US nuclear thermal rocket program
- Project Rover - an American project to develop nuclear thermal rockets. The program was run at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from 1955 to 1972.
- The Timberwind Project 1987-1991
Ramjet
- Bussard ramjet, a conceptual conceptual interconnecting fusion called Robert W. Bussard.
Direct nuclear
- The fission fragment rocket
- Sailing fission
- Fusion rocket
- Rocket core gas rocket
- Nuclear brine rocket
- Radioisotope rocket
- Nuclear photonic rockets
Nuclear power
- Nuclear electric rocket
- The Prometheus Project, NASA's long-term nuclear power development, started in 2003
Development of Russian Space Agency
Anatolij Perminov, head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, announced that it will develop a nuclear-powered spacecraft for space travel. The initial design is done in 2013, and 9 more years are planned for development (in the assembly of aerospace). The price is set at 17 billion rubles (600 million dollars). The nuclear drive will have a mega-wattage class, providing the necessary funding, Roscosmos Chief stated.
This system will consist of space nuclear power and ion machine matrix. "... The temperature of the hot inert gas is 1500 ° C from the turbine turning reactor The turbine turns the generator and compressor, which circulates the working fluid in a closed circuit Working fluid is cooled in the radiator The generator generates electricity for the same ion (plasma) machine.. "
According to him, propulsion will be able to support human mission to Mars, with cosmonauts living on the Red planet for 30 days. The trip to Mars with a stable nuclear drive and acceleration will take six weeks instead of eight months using chemical propulsion - assuming a thrust of 300 times higher than a chemical propulsion.
Vehicles
Car
The idea of ​​making cars that use radioactive material, radium, to date the fuel back to at least 1903. The concept analysis in 1937 showed that drivers of such vehicles may require a 50 ton tin barrier to protect them from radiation.
In 1941, Dr. R M Langer, a Caltech physicist, put forward the idea of ​​a uranium-driven car in the January issue of Popular Mechanics. He was followed by William Bushnell Stout, designer of Stout Scarab and former president of the Society of Engineers, on August 7, 1945 at the New York Times. The problem of protecting the reactor continues to make the idea impractical. In December 1945, a John Wilson from London, announced he had created an atomic car. This creates considerable interest. The Minister of Fuel and Electric along with a large press contingent saw him. The car did not show up and Wilson claimed that it had been sabotaged. The court case later found out that he was a cheat and there was no nuclear-powered car.
Despite the shielding problem, through the late 1940s and early 1950s the debate continued around the possibility of nuclear-powered cars. The development of nuclear-powered submarines and vessels, and attempts to develop nuclear-powered aircraft at that time kept the idea alive. Russian papers in the mid-1950s reported the development of nuclear-powered cars by Professor V P Romadin, but once again the shield proved to be a problem. Claimed that his laboratory has overcome the problem of shielding with a new alloy that absorbs light.
In 1958 at the height of American car culture in 1950 there were at least four proposed nuclear-powered car concepts, American Ford Nucleon and Studebaker Packard Astral, as well as French Simca Fulgur designed by Robert Opron and Arbel Symetric. Apart from these concept models, nothing is built and no automotive nuclear power plant ever made. Engineer Chrysler C R Lewis had ignored the idea in 1957 because of the estimate that a 80,000 pound (36,000 kg) engine would be needed by a car weighing 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg). His view is that an efficient way to store energy is necessary for nuclear power to be practical. Nevertheless, the Chrysler stylist in 1958 composed several possible designs.
In 1959 it was reported that Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company had developed a new lightweight rubber compound and absorbed radiation, obviating the need for heavy shielding. A reporter at the time assumed it might make nuclear-powered cars and planes a possibility.
Ford created another potentially nuclear-powered model in 1962 for Seattle World's Fair, the Ford Seattle-ite XXI. It also never goes beyond the initial concept.
In 2009, for the centenary of General Motors's acquisition of Cadillac, Loren Kulesus created an art concept depicting a car powered by thorium.
More
Chrysler TV-8 is an experimental concept tank designed by Chrysler in the 1950s. The tank was intended to be a nuclear-powered nuclear tank capable of both land and amphibious warfare. The design was never mass produced. The Mars rover Curiosity is supported by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG), such as the Viking 1 lander and the Viking 2 Mars in 1976.
See also
- Secure Affordable Physical Machines
- Space-powered spacecraft
References
Further reading
-
Bussard, R.; DeLauer, R. (1958). "Nuclear Rocket Propulsion". McGraw-Hill. - Bussard, R. (1965). "Fundamentals of Nuclear Flight". McGraw-Hill.
- Cushin, Harry (April 1951). "Atomic Strength - In Your Car". Motor Trends .
External links
- Nuclear Space Propulsion: NASA 1968 on YouTube
- S. K. Borowski et al., "Nuclear Thermal Rocket/Vehicle Design Options for Future NASA's Mission to the Moon and Mars", USA. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA-TM-0107071, September 1993.
- W. E. Moeckel, "Propulsion System for Solar System Exploration," US. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA TM X-1864, August 1969.
- G. R. Schmidt, J. A. Bonometti and P. J. Morton, "Nuclear Pulse Propulsion: Orion and Beyond," Am. Inst. Aero. Astro., AIAA 2000-3856, July 2000.
- RKA home page in English
- (in Russian) RKA home page in Russian
- (in Russian) 2006-2015 RKA Fundamental Space Research Program
- Russian Space Program
- Atomic rocket - Realistic design of ten speculative concepts from NASA
- RW Bussard, a sophisticated fusion energy system for aerospace propulsion, 2003
- Nuclear Propulsion Technology Survey for Space Applications, A. Micks, March 15, 2013
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments