Homer Hickam Speaks Out For Fission Rockets

jonerik writes: "Former NASA engineer Homer Hickam (perhaps best known for his 1998 memoir "Rocket Boys," which was turned into the 1999 motion picture "October Sky") has this article in Technology Review in which he advocates that the U.S. revive its nuclear rocket program of the '50s and '60s, arguing that nuclear-powered rockets are the only realistic way of opening up the rest of the solar system - particularly Mars - to human exploration."

Re:Good Idea, just won't happen anytime soon

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it should be called "The Great Mushroom Shooting Rainbow Fun Machine".

Re:Well, bring'em up dammit!

[doooras]

forget mars... i wanna go to Ferenginar... all the women are required to be naked. they're ugly, yeah... but they're naked!

Re:Well, bring'em up dammit!

[marcsiry]

News flash: Women here can be naked, too, if you do stuff like listen to what they say. Or at least pretend to, with an understanding look on your face, while you visualize them being naked.

Try it sometime :-)

Re:that's nice

[zerocool^]

Better to invest in laser propultion and linear magnetic launchers.

Or time machines [techtv.com] =) Now, if we could just get the power equivilant of a supernova into something the size of... say... a VW bug...

~z

Good Luck

[BlackGriffen]

Nuclear is practically a dirty word. Just stick your head out the door and say it, and in 5 minutes you'll have at least 5 hippies protesting outside. They won't know what or exactly why they're protesting, but it has the word "nuclear" attached to it, so it must be bad.

It's the same way with health nuts and the word "chemicals" though they don't protest it, they just condemn it. Just walk up to someone in a health club, and ask him, "Do you know how many chemicals you have floating around in your body?" and watch him get a disgusted look on his face like you accused him of having herpes. Or ask some clerk at a health food store, "How many chemicals does this have in it?" and laugh at his ignorant @ss when he tries to claim there aren't any.

BlackGriffen

An exercise for the student

[leonbrooks]

Once at the target star system, a Dyson sphere can be constructed around that star.

Yup, just whip a handy-handy Sears Roebuck discount Dyson Sphere out of your back pocket, follow the directions, and you'll have your own private Dyson sphere in minutes, just like on the movies... no worries, mate! (-:

Re:Good Luck

[pclminion]

We have a hippie-type in my Alpine Environments class (I've been made fun of enough, no need no need). This guy is seriously f*cked in the head. He probably comes to class on acid or something. Anyway, we were discussing how solar radiation intensity (insolation) varies as a function of altitude, and the impacts on snow conditions, and this guy jumps up and yells out:

"You mean there's RADIATION COMING FROM THE SUN??!!?!?!?!"