Ian,

I did not see any reference to nuclear fusion at think link you mentioned on 31 Oct.

http://www.neofuel.com/

He seems to be talking a lot about nuclear fission as space propulsion.

Care to ellaborate ?

Cheers,

Charles R.

> Ian,

> http://www.neofuel.com/
>
> He seems to be talking a lot about nuclear fission as space propulsion.
>
> Care to ellaborate ?

Yes, the guy used to work for the nuclear industry. He's proposing
a low ISP rocket system using water collected from the lunar pole.

Because it's low ISP, it's quite low risk, and sidesteps many of
the issues you get with NERVA and its ilk. Basically they're using
nuclear power to boil water. ISP comes to around 200; not great,
but possibly enough. But the tech is well within reach - boiling
water with uranium is how nuclear power stations work. The only
assumption he's making is that there actually is enough water in
useful form at the poles to make it worth collecting.

Use of nuclear power in this context seems pretty safe. During
launch, containment can be easily dealt with - the Uranium wouldn't
be significantly radioactive on the way up anyway. Once it makes it
to the moon any accident could render the moons surface radioactive
and uninhabitable without special suits- (i.e. no change!) The moon
doesn't have an atmosphere so any contamination is going to be
quite short range.

The problem is whether the water is there or not in useful form.