Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
NASA has conducted tests of a nuclear reactor intended to generate electricity in space for the first time since 1965, offering hope that humanity may now belatedly get serious about building proper, powerful spaceships of the sort long envisaged in science fiction.
The space agency has just announced the tests, conducted by engineers from NASA's Goddard centre in conjunction with Department of Energy boffins from the Los Alamos national lab. The effort made use of an experimental reactor named "Flattop" and was inauspiciously dubbed Demonstration Using Flattop Fissions (DUFF).
The part I find spectacularly interesting is that it dispenses with the weight of fuel entirely, finding it in "empty" space and then redirecting it. Intercepting energy can be done numerous ways, but propulsion through any sort of equal opposite reaction is much more difficult.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
