Digest Number 245

[snikt]
> Nukes are neither necessary nor desirable.
>

Well, I second Ian Wollard. Nukes certainly aren't necessary, but they (once
more, certainly) are *desirable*. Nuclear fuels could short timescales for
interplanetary-scale travel and possibly reduce launch costs to LEO. (As far
as I know, a nuke-powered rocket would have an exhaust velocity considerably
higher than chemical ones, and therefore it could make SSTOs a reality, for
instance; not that that is the *only* way to drop launch costs, but it is
one of the candidates.) Also, most of the objections to nukes that I have
heard so far are rather political/ecofreakish than really valid from a
scientific/engineering standpoint.

[snikt]
Lucio