Nuclear Thermal Rockets, and Lox Augmentation...

Well, SpaceX hasn't gone nuclear yet. But Elon does fill up his rockets with LOX, not only liquid but now even close to freezing.

While we wait for LENR rockets to happen we can try to keep this thread alive watching a nice, new video about the story of the still rising star SpaceX:

By the way, do not miss the next shot:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com…-with-last-falcon-9-v1-1/

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Currently, the launch is targeted for 17 January at 18:42:18 GMT (13:42:18 p.m. EST; 10:42:18 a.m. PST, local time)

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NERVA is (was) an interesting concept. When you hear about a nuclear rocket perhaps you expect it to be millions of times more efficient than a chemical rocket since the energy liberated by a nuclear reaction can be millions of times larger than from a chemical reaction. This is not the case however.

All rockets are busy ejecting matter one way in order to move the other way. The center of gravity of the combination of rocket and ejected matter is stationary. The higher speed of the ejected matter, the better the rocket.

The task of the reactor is simply to heat hydrogen to give it a high pressure that will accelerate the rocket when it is let out into the free. The achievable temperature in the nuclear rocket is limited by the maximum temperature that the material in the reactor kan sustain. As it turns out a nuclear rocket can be around twice as efficient as a chemical rocket and this does not outweigh the many drawbacks with a nuclear concept.

Here is a very nice 1968 NASA promotion video for nuclear rocket:

At the end of the movie they say that a NERVA rocket would produce a thrust of 75 000 pounds (334 kN). Compare this to a Merlin motor from SpaceX that gives 825 kN with a thrust to weight ratio of 180. Just like LENR: compact, no radioactivity, no heavy shielding needed!

What they do not mention in the movie is that one of the NERVA rockets that was deprived of liquid hydrogen while running had the core molten and ejected into the desert and the remainders had to be collected piece by piece.

Warning, thread subject violation!

A non-nuclear rocket is about to be launched.
Get a Coke and some popcorn!

http://www.space.com/17933-nas…bcasts-live-space-tv.html

You need to see this spectacular uncensored movie:
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/s…asnt-gotten-its-sea-legs/

There are speculations that it was ice buildup that prevented the leg from latching. Apart from that minor detail the landing seemed to be perfect.

The most important thing of course, was that the Jason-3 launch had a top notch Coefficient Of Performance.

SpaceX SES-9

Time for another shot with Falcon 9.

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This Wednesday at 6:46 pm EST, SpaceX is scheduled to launch the SES-9 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida with their Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

This satellit needs a big kick, not much fuel will be left for landing the first stage on the floating platform.
Failure is expected, but there is always something to LENR from failures too!

Don't miss the fireworks:
http://www.spacex.com/webcast

40% chance of cancelling turned into 100%. The LOX in now extra ultra cold, but no cold fusion to be seen.

Here is countdown to next try in a couple of hours: http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Is the fourth time still a charm?

“We’re now targeting Friday, March 4 at 6:35 pm ET for launch of SES-9,”
said SpaceX spokesman Phil Larson. Sunset is at 6:25 pm.