Oct 30 2009Russia To Build Nuclear Powered Spaceship
You read correctly: Russia plans to build a nuclear powered spaceship. I smell a new coldcool lukewarm war coming on! ADVANCE THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK!
Roscosmos, Russia's Federal Space Agency has a new design for a manned spacecraft powered by a nuclear engine. Anatoly Perminov, the head of the agency, told reporters yesterday the goal of the Megawatt-class spaceship was "implementing large-scale space exploration programs."
Perminov added that this new spacecraft -- which will have a preliminary design by 2012 -- is supposed to help Russia maintain its edge in space, and possibly allow travel to the Moon or Mars. But Anatoly Koroteyev, president of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics and head of the Keldysh research center, told RIA-Novosti that setting up permanent base on the moon was still out of the question.
Listen, I'm all for atomic energy, but I can't imagine the aliens being too thrilled about the Ruskies launching an atomic missile in their direction. AND YOU WONDER WHY THEY COME TO EARTH AND STICK THINGS IN OUR ASSES.
Поехали! Russia Plans Atomic-Powered Spaceship [wired]
Thanks to Nick, who built a nuclear reactor in his parents' basement but got grounded when they found it.
Reader Comments
1. FWD - October 30, 2009 4:26 PM
sweet!
2. CharlO - October 30, 2009 4:35 PM
2nd! Man! What'z up with you, the second new today that actually had a wikipedia link!
3. 3rd - October 30, 2009 4:36 PM
third
4. squeehunter - October 30, 2009 4:48 PM
I was excited when I heard this but I don't think it's an Orion drive. The one that uses nuclear bombs to propel a spaceship. It would have worked too. :( Unless we get something that efficient, we're just going to be stuck on the moon forever.
5. Daisy - October 30, 2009 4:48 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max went to the bottom of the ocean to disable a nuclear bomb that a crazy marine dropped off his sub. He wasn't able to tell the difference between the different colored wires at that depth, and just guessed. What he didn't know whas that the bomb wasn't waterproof, and wouldn't have exploded anyhow, so whichever he picked he was good.
6. The Bush Whacker - October 30, 2009 4:51 PM
Is that a luminous painted star up there?
7. ciao - October 30, 2009 5:11 PM
I bet it's exhaust is a rainbow >:{
8. meowmo - October 30, 2009 5:12 PM
nukes aren't allowed in space... right? they cause an emp shockwave. whatever, go russia! i'm sure when it's contained nothing could go wrong.
9. Nick - October 30, 2009 5:24 PM
1. Yeah they grounded me, to the basement...strange, I guess we need the energy. Just refining the reactor now...Pinky! Bring me that wrench.
2. The Orion drive is a feasable option but honestly vacuum or no, detonating multiple nukes in space, especially in proximity to earth, cosmic radition would take an interesting change don't ya think?
3. I'd always wondered why we weren't using a nuke to power space flight anyways, haul the materials up to the ISS, do a nice dry dock construction of a ship around a reactor, zero-g would make it easy to build something that wouldn't aerodynamicaly make it out of the earth atmosphere, and boom! Space ship, travel'n around the stars. It is so easy...why must NASA suck sooooo bad!
10. Dishy Dishyington - October 30, 2009 6:03 PM
Daisy's describing the movie The Abyss, which was pretty great in case you haven't seen it yet.
I remember the diver couldn't tell the wire colors because the only light he had was green glow-in-the-dark sticks, but I thought he just guessed the right wire. In movie-reality you can always guess right if it's really really really important. I didn't know the bomb was broken.
11. Ham Bone - October 30, 2009 6:04 PM
The End is Nigh ... as for the ass thing that never really bothered me
12. Kyle - October 30, 2009 6:44 PM
Anyone else find it hilarious this is to be completed by 2012?
13. squeehunter - October 30, 2009 6:58 PM
@9
There are ways to get around that and people have already thought them out. I don't remember exactly but once you get past a certain point, the earth's magnetic field protects it.
14. Turtle - October 30, 2009 8:58 PM
What could possibly go wrong!!???
15. USA - October 30, 2009 9:02 PM
I'm telling ya man, DON'T TRUST RUSSIANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
16. Stupid Ass - October 30, 2009 10:05 PM
@12 PRELIMINARY DESIGN
17. manu@Sydney Backpackers - October 31, 2009 5:00 AM
I think Russia would be feared of other planet people and their armaments thats why they build such a nuclear power spaceship.
18. Sydney Backpackers - October 31, 2009 5:01 AM
I think Russia would be feared of other planet people and their armaments thats why they build such a nuclear power spaceship.
19. Lloyd Johnson - October 31, 2009 5:42 AM
But does it have whale penis leather?
20. Tom - October 31, 2009 1:25 PM
Not a bad idea, as long as there's some safe way of disposing of spent fuel. There's already a load of enriched urainium in orbit thanks to the RORSAT project in the 70s - about 30 nuclear powered Russian active radar spy satellites dumped their reactor cores into a higher "disposal" orbit after they reached the end of their lifespan and re-entered the atmosphere, so that no solid nuclear waste would make it to the surface. The catch is, the stuff in the disposal orbit will eventually come back down again in a couple of centuries, burn up on re-entry, and probably disperse into the atmosphere as radioactive fallout. For a handful of satellite power cores, I'd imagine the environmental effect will be similar to that of a few the atmospheric atomic bomb tests of the 50s, which would probably be tolerable if not exactly desirable; but if we build an entire nuclear rocket that enters general service, the amount of fuel and waste involved will be a lot greater, and we're going to have to find a way to stop the same thing from happening to those.
21. lee harless - November 1, 2009 9:40 AM
jeece tom, that was like, a page too long. i read the first four words, and instantly knew all i needed to know about how you feel on the post.
22. Wah - November 2, 2009 11:13 AM
Did anyone else notice the photoshopped-out 'United States' on the rocket, as in the original Wired article? FAIL!