Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Yeah, but have you ever worked out the rocket equation for a spaceship that accelerates at 1G for a full year? There literally isn’t enough mass in our solar system, even with a ridiculous engine with an ISP of 5000 and perfect alchemy to convert all raw mass in the solar system to rocket fuel.


Project Orion could do ISP of 100,000. Even nuclear thermal engine could reach 5000


As far as I know Nuclear Thermal rockets have topped out around 1000. Project Orion is entirely theoretical and the ISP calculations should be taken with a grain of salt.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: