Design
In a conventional chemical rocket, chemical reactions of the fuel and oxidizer (e.g. Oxygen and Kerosene) heat the by-products of the chemical reaction (e.g. CO2 and H2O) to high temperatures as they are forced through a rocket nozzle. The fast moving molecules in the exhaust focused in one direction create thrust. In a nuclear thermal rocket (or NTR) a nuclear fission reactor would serve as a source of heat which would be transferred to a propellant that is then exhausted through a rocket nozzle. The propellant in this case can be any material with suitable properties, it need not react during the operation of the rocket, it is simply a source of mass to be heated up and exhausted out of the rocket at high speeds. In an NSWR the nuclear salt-water would be made to flow through a reaction chamber and out an exhaust nozzle in such a way and at such speeds that the peak neutron flux in the fission reaction would occur outside of the vehicle.
Read more about this topic: Nuclear Salt-water Rocket
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.”
—Marilyn French (20th century)
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)