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Nuclear propulsion

I guess Nuklear propulsion is useful in many ways if we provide sufficient shielding even in case of mishaps...safety is possible if everything is designed carefully.....I guess future is for Nuklear jet engines...:smokin:
 
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I think solar is a lot harder than many think for UAV's designed to be up for days. You have the obvious issues of the night-time flying, and there must be batteries on board that can keep it airborne overnight. You'd need a huge array of solar cells. It's possible, but I think a nuclear battery of the type used by the Soviets in their space probes would be even better.

The rule of thumb in space is that Mars orbit and closer, you can use solar cells. Anything outside Mars, you have to use nuclear, because the solar flux is so weak. All of those deep space probes like Voyager use nuclear batteries. Voyager is still beeping away outside Pluto's orbit, and should still live for another 20 years. The cool part is that the nuclear decay keeps the probe warm along with supplying power... otherwise, the deep cold might kill it.

Safety will always be a big issue.
 
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Boeing tries to defy gravity
Monday, 29 July, 2002

Researchers at the world's largest aircraft maker, Boeing, are using the work of a controversial Russian scientist to try to create a device that will defy gravity.

The company is examining an experiment by Yevgeny Podkletnov, who claims to have developed a device which can shield objects from the Earth's pull.

Dr Podkletnov is viewed with suspicion by many conventional scientists. They have not been able to reproduce his results.

The project is being run by the top-secret Phantom Works in Seattle, the part of the company which handles Boeing's most sensitive programmes.

The head of the Phantom Works, George Muellner, told the security analysis journal Jane's Defence Weekly that the science appeared to be valid and plausible.

Dr Podkletnov claims to have countered the effects of gravity in an experiment at the Tampere University of Technology in Finland in 1992.

The scientist says he found that objects above a superconducting ceramic disc rotating over powerful electromagnets lost weight.

The reduction in gravity was small, about 2%, but the implications - for example, in terms of cutting the energy needed for a plane to fly - were immense.

Scientists who investigated Dr Podkletnov's work, however, said the experiment was fundamentally flawed and that negating gravity was impossible.

Research explored

But documents obtained by Jane's Defence Weekly and seen by the BBC show that Boeing is taking Dr Podkletnov's research seriously.

The hypothesis is being tested in a programme codenamed Project Grasp.

Boeing is the latest in a series of high-profile institutions trying to replicate Dr Podkletnov's experiment.

The military wing of the UK hi-tech group BAE Systems is working on an anti-gravity programme, dubbed Project Greenglow.

The US space agency, Nasa, is also attempting to reproduce Dr Podkletnov's findings, but a preliminary report indicates the effect does not exist.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Boeing tries to defy gravity
 
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^^ We'll need some sort of physics-shattering new energy or propulsion method if we ever want to get out of this solar system!
 
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Yes! it will be far better if the Nuclear propulsion could be used in civilian jets to save money and conventional fuel. This will help reduce the air travel costs too....:)
and where ever it falls it will create Nagasaki or fukushima.
 
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