back to article Russia assigns $16.7m for nuclear spaceships

The Russian government has assigned funds of 500 million roubles ($16.7m) for the development of a nuclear-powered spacecraft, according to reports. Draft designs are expected to be finalised by 2012. RIA Novosti reports that 430 million roubles of the space nuke-engine funding has been assigned to the Rosatom state nuclear …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Translation...

    ha ha, Screw you USA, look at our lovely Plutonium 238....Mmmmm tastes guuuuud

  2. Paul_Murphy
    Flame

    Daedalus/Orion

    Thats what I thought of first, but sadly we're not going to be seeing small cities blasted into orbit and beyond by exploding atomic bombs underneath them.

    Flame - lots of radioactive ones..

    ttfn

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What's the point in going to Mars?

    Of course it would be a great achievement and scientifically interesting, but it seems to me that the time and money spent on sending a few people to a dry, dusty planet would be better invested elsewhere for the moment. We should be looking to the asteroid belt, mine those rocks and get some permanent bases up in space then jaunts to Mars (and other planets) become cheaper and easier. If we can only ever launch to space by blasting out of the Earth's atmosphere we're never going to get anywhere.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    stick to the puppets gerald

    Sounds like the 'Queller Drive' drive off space 1999 to me.

    Apparently launched in 1985 according to 'visionary' Gerry Anderson.......

  5. James Robertson 2

    Orion

    Bring back Project Orion, was a great idea that would have made space travel "fairly" cheap had it been completed.

    1. Francis Boyle

      Multiple atmospheric nuclear explosions

      per launch. I'm broadly pro-nuclear but I'm not crazy. Project Orion was cool, perhaps, in a mad scientist sort of way but not safe, clean or indeed in any way cheap.

      1. dazl1212
        Go

        Conventional Rockets

        Launch the craft with conventional rockets or build it in space, problem solved. Nuclear fuel is the only viable fuel for the near future.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Orion

      The problem with orion is that it has to be pretty much all assembled in space and launched from space, the fallout caused by an earth launch would be responsible for many deaths. Other than that, it's ace.

      I believe NASA are investigating the technology again in view to destroying earth crossing objects, as you can get an Orion style craft out to destroy one with enough time for a second chance, if it doesn't work. I'm not sure how seriously it is being investigated though, especially with the assemble in space requirement.

      1. Francis Boyle

        I don't think it's that easy

        If by space you mean low Earth orbit you'll still have a cloud of radioactive material raining down on the planet. On the other hand, if you launch from a safe distance you're faced with the problem of getting what is unavoidably a massive vehicle to that point using chemical propulsion. That's not a trivial thing to do with current tech (and budgets). There are a variety of nuclear space propulsion technologies that are promising and potentially realisable in the medium term but the Orion drive isn't one of them.

  6. Andy 97
    Alert

    $16.7M? about £9M

    That's less than some companies spend on internal comms.

    I can't wait to see the finished project.

    On the Space 1999 suggestion, Moonbase Alpha was almost destroyed by the angry inhabitants of a planet the Queller Drive inadvertently destroyed.

    You can get all-excited about it by reading the synopsis here:

    http://www.fanderson.org.uk/epguides/spaceyr1eg3.html#Episode%20Twelve

    The episode after next is better because Brian Blessed is in it.

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Russia's got the knowledge but not the bucks

      The US has the bucks but no longer has the knowledge. Most of the clueful NASA folks are retired now, even if you count the Shuttle designers as clueful.

      And "no bucks, no Buck Rogers"

      1. Mr Ian

        Not quite right there...

        Unfortunately Gene, the US does not have the bucks. US is rather strapped for cash right now and if they continue to use the "Hey let's just print more money!" approach then they're only going to hurt themselves moreso.

  7. Francis Boyle

    "Nuclear Wessels"

    in space. I'd like to see that.

  8. Daniel Wilkie
    Thumb Up

    Nuclear-Technofear

    This is an awesome word!

    1. Anonymous Bastard
      Boffin

      Surely that should be

      Nucleotechnophobia

      But they're both fun to say.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    one problem

    One problem with bringing back Project Orion is the need to start testing again. This would mean a renewed (and not quelled) interest in Nuclear Fission from countries that excite the security councils around the globe. Then, there will be a "Oh, so Westerners can blast off into space using Nuclear Power, yet we were told to build renewable energy sources by utilising flatulence..!"

    I for one would love to see cheap, efficient, and clean space travel. I wanna see the stars, and witness the space between galaxies first hand

    OOooohhh the love of it all! Makes a young man's mind turn to jelly..

    Paris, because she can make my mind turn to jelly in a good way, and a bad way..

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Megabucks!

    Hence forth el Reg shall write all currencies in scientific prefix notaiton, as follows:

    megarouble, megapound, megadollar

    kilorouble, kilopound, kilodollar

    etc

  11. cookieMonster Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    All we need now is ...

    the Chinese and Indians to become active.... nothing like a little competition to get things rolling - we should have had bases on both the moon and mars by now.

    By a happy coincidence I'm currently reading "An Aspie Story: To Inhabit the Solar System"

    http://www.neofuel.com/inhabit/

    He was inspired by the Orion project, it's an enjoyable read..

  12. Tom Chiverton 1 Silver badge
    Flame

    "plasma or ion rocket"

    "plasma or ion rocket" ?!?

    No, no, no, no.

    Just throw water into it. Much cheaper, and there are plenty of Earth orbit cross 'dark comets' to fuel from.

    Geez.

    Read Anthony Zuppero's book...

  13. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    Russia has substantial space reactor experience

    IIRC driving big ocean surveillance radars.

    He seems to be talking rather more about Project NERVA, direct heating (and expulsion) of liquid hydrogen.

    Note that while NERVA is high thrust (more convetional rocket than 0.1N ion drives) and with an Isp of around 700-900sec its thrust to weight ration is very poor at about 1.1 to one (although that's a guess. NERVA was only a ground test).

    At this stage in the game you might as well go with a microwave driven ion drive powered by an orbiting solar power sat (yes NASA has looked at this).

    Mine's the one with SP8000 series on a PDF reader.

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