On Thu, 2011-06-09 at 22:30 +0200, Javier Herrero wrote: > I don't think it is feasible... for a cooling reason :)
You would think the cooling would be a critical issue (It usually is in spacecraft), but the Russians flew a few surveillance birds with reactors on board (and had at least one more such fail to make orbit). Cosmos 954 also failed to eject its core to a safe orbit before reentry and radioactive components were recovered from the impact site in Canada. So yes, a nuclear powered bird is possible, I suspect by running the entire thermodynamic cycle very hot and thereby increasing the radiative cooling efficiency on the 'cold' side. Regards, Dan. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
