Power Sources
Feasible current, or near-term fission reactor designs can generate up to 2.2 kW per kilogram of reactor mass. Without any payload, such a reactor could drive a photon rocket at nearly 10−4 m/s² (10−5g; see g-force). This could perhaps provide interplanetary spaceflight capability from Earth orbit. Nuclear fusion reactors could also be used, perhaps providing somewhat higher power.
A design proposed in the 1950s by Eugen Sänger used positron-electron annihilation to produce gamma rays. Sänger was unable to solve the problem of how to reflect, and collimate the gamma rays created by positron-electron annihilation; however, by shielding the reactions (or other annihilations) and absorbing their energy, a similar blackbody propulsion system could be created. An antimatter-matter powered photon rocket would (disregarding the shielding) obtain the maximum c specific impulse; for this reason, an antimatter-matter annihilation powered photon rocket could potentially be used for interstellar spaceflight.
Read more about this topic: Nuclear Photonic Rocket
Famous quotes containing the words power and/or sources:
“Thy blood and virtue
Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none. Be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend
Under thy own life’s key. Be checked for silence
But never taxed for speech.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty; he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large relations; whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of error.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)