Project Rover was the general name for a program of nuclear rocket propulsion in 1955-73. Twenty of its reactors were operating, all the components of its flight engine were tested for 2 hours (space engines do not work long before they leave the earth's gravitational field), and the flight engine itself was ready for development.
The project was killed by Nixon in 1973. The reasons were essentially political, and by that I do not mean the antinuclear, media-supported pressure groups, which had not yet made sufficient headway in 1973 to force such a decision. (That, at least, is my belief, though soon afterward Ford killed Project Pacer, a power-generation method by underground explosions, for what appear to have been purely image-polishing PR "reasons.")
Project Rover died simply because funds were diverted to the space station and the shuttle (of which only the latter has materialized as the budget for the former kept shrinking.) With the Apollo mission to the moon successfully accomplished, Nixon looked for another visible showpiece to cover his administration with glory, and he found it in the Space-Station/Shuttle Project, which was recommended by NASA as a never-ending object of activity down through the fiscal years. It was thus a political decision: it was not necessarily one that a free market would have reached, just as a free market would have supported - - or killed, for that matter
¾a project like Rover on its genuine merits rather than on ifs superficial image.But the logic of facts is stronger than the ideological piffle spewed by Tom Brokaw (who called the Challenger tragedy "technology turning on the country"). Nuclear power is making a comeback in Space.
The reason is that solar power
¾even in space! -- is unable to meet the bill for the high internal power consumption of such projects as space-based radar systems, EMP-proof communication satellites, and, of course, the lasers of Star Shield. By 1983, a number of government agencies, including the US Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, asked for funds (and got them) to develop 100-kW space-based nuclear reactors. They are intended as internal electric power sources; but reactors for propulsion will not be far behind.
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Vol. 13, No. 7
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 13, No. 7 Date: November 29, 2004 04:15 PM Title: Onward and outward
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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