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It's gonna be like Star Trek except shitty and violent. (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/slop@hexbear.net
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[–] 4 points 1 day ago (1 child)

What the hell kind of propulsion could a nuclear reactor do in space? Don't we just use that shit to heat water to spin turbines here on earth? Don't we basically push ourselves around in space by letting the air out of balloons in the vacuum of space?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 day ago

    The efficiency of a rocket motor is proportional to the exhaust velocity, which is proportional to the exhaust temperature. If you run hydrogen over a nuclear reactor, it gets hotter and therefore faster than if you just burned it. This has already been built and was called NERVA, and should have been used in the 70s with the rest of the cancelled STS program.

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