News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The US military is getting serious about nuclear thermal ... by Symmetry on Monday June 22, 2020 @09:17AM (#23599816)
You can also have solar thermal propulsion where you reflect large amounts of sunlight onto some hydrogen to heat it up before using it as propellant. The efficiency is roughly the same since in both cases you're basically limited by the melting point of your engine. Solar thermal designs tend to have lower thrust than nuclear thermal but much more thrust than solar electric.
Re:The US military is getting serious about nuclear thermal ... by nickik on Tuesday June 23, 2020 @07:33AM (#23612556)
There are also things like solar electric water plasma, check out Momentus. Might be a good 'middle' for thrust.