Chapter 1042 Nuclear-Powered Rocket

The fission and fusion of atoms will result in a loss of mass, and this loss of mass contains enormous energy. Einstein's mass-energy conversion equation indicates that this is almost inexhaustible energy!

The disaster of World War II was also an era of rapid development for science and technology. The atomic bomb was quickly developed during World War II, and then the nuclear reactor was invented. Human beings can peacefully use nuclear energy to serve human production and life.

At the same time, nuclear energy has also been favored by space agencies. If nuclear energy can be used in space, it will greatly increase the source of energy!

The first to be used was, of course, nuclear batteries! Many Soviet reconnaissance satellites used nuclear batteries. The power provided by this type of nuclear battery is much higher than that of solar panels. At the same time, nuclear batteries are also very durable. The Voyager probe launched by the United States has been out of the solar system for a long time and is still working because of its powerful performance.

However, how to use nuclear power on rockets is a question worthy of consideration. After all, nuclear explosions are simple, and using nuclear batteries is also simple, but how to directly use nuclear power to propel rockets?

【Official Source】Support ethical translations! Read at **wtr-lab.com**​​

In this regard, the Americans have come up with a simple solution. They use small-yield atomic bombs to explode one after another at the tail of the rocket. The propulsion disk installed at the back of the rocket can absorb the shock wave generated by the explosion and use it to gain power! This is the Orion plan.

You can imagine that the process of this thing taking off is like a jellyfish in the ocean, jumping up and down. Every time an atomic bomb is dropped, the rocket will jump up a distance. The process is enough to make people tremble with fear!

During the take-off phase, a small atomic bomb with a yield of 100 tons is detonated every second. When the rocket reaches a certain speed and altitude, the detonation rate drops to one bomb every 10 seconds. Since it is far away from the ground, the nuclear bomb detonated at this time is 20,000 tons of nuclear power.

🔥 *Hot New Release!* Translated with **95% accuracy** - **wtr-lab.com**​​

At that time, the Americans had already conducted experiments with conventional bombs, and it was feasible. However, this thing was ultimately stillborn. After all, directly detonating a nuclear bomb was too cruel!

Therefore, in the end, they all turned to the solution of nuclear-powered rocket engines similar to liquid rockets. The United States designed the NERVA nuclear rocket engine, whose fuel is mainly uranium 235 or plutonium 239. The nuclear fission fuel generates heat to heat the working fluid in the combustion chamber to eject it. Generally, hydrogen with the lowest molecular weight is used as the working fluid to obtain the reaction force in order to obtain the highest jet speed.

Why can't we use ordinary chemical rockets? Because these ordinary rockets can only work for a few hundred seconds, but they consume tons of fuel! If we use chemical rockets to fly to Mars, the rocket will ignite for a few hundred seconds to accelerate the spacecraft, and the rest of the long journey will be a process of continuous flight relying on inertia, which is quite long!

🔔 *Update Alert!* New chapters drop hourly ↠ **wtr-lab.com**​​

The Saturn V was a classic example of this. Its first stage contained 2,075 tons of liquid oxygen-kerosene propellant. Once the engine was ignited, it could "drink" all of it in 2 minutes and 34 seconds. However, it was only enough to send 47 tons of payload to the moon. A large part of the 3,500 tons of takeoff thrust was used to "drag" the rocket itself and more than 2,000 tons of fuel. The propulsion efficiency of this rocket was low.

The advantage of using a nuclear reactor to heat the working fluid is that it does not require a very large mass of oxidizer, but only requires a relatively small mass of liquid hydrogen. The specific impulse is much larger than that of a chemical rocket, and the total speed can reach a very high level. Moreover, the duration is very long.

🚫 *Stop scrolling!* Your next favorite novel awaits → **wtr-lab.com**​​

By 1972, the NERVA-2 engine designed by the United States had a power of 5000MW and a continuous thrust of 90 tons. Although the thrust is not large, in outer space, as long as there is thrust, the spacecraft can continue to accelerate!

The US design only stopped at the sketch stage, and at most conducted simple prototype experiments. However, the Soviet Union actually developed the RD-0410 nuclear rocket engine!

Love this translation? Read 5+ chapters ahead at **wtr-lab.com** - No registration required!​​

Like the United States' nuclear-powered rockets, the principle of this engine is to use the fission heat energy generated by the reactor to heat the working medium, that is, the propellant, to a very high temperature, and then eject the high-temperature and high-pressure working medium from the nozzle at high speed, thereby generating huge thrust.

The Soviet Union, which has always been at the forefront of space technology, has never given up on the development of this rocket engine! So far, this engine has finally matured and has been installed on rockets!

At the same time, this engine has been further modified to provide not only thrust, but also electricity! After all, when a spacecraft is flying, it still needs a certain amount of power supply! Especially after entering deep space, getting farther and farther away from the sun, the efficiency of solar panels will become lower and lower.

Andrei is not the general secretary of the Soviet Union yet, but as the successor, he is now in charge of all the work of the Soviet Union! Before arriving, Andrei was reading this document, and now, after the communication with Andrei, Andrei said: "I have spent the past few months in the Kremlin. Now, it's time to go out for a walk. We want to go to the launch site to see our rocket launch this time."

⚠️ *Content scraping detected.* Authentic readers visit **wtr-lab.com**​​

In the past few months, Andrei has not been out. Of course, he has other concerns. How serious is the infiltration of the secret Freemasonry into the Soviet Union? Although Andrei is not afraid of retaliation from any force, he knows that now his personal safety is related to the future of the entire Soviet Union, so he must be careful. If he goes out casually and is shot dead, that would be stupid.

Now, a few months is enough to clean up those conspirators. At this time, Andrei should also show up to the public, and Andrei really wants to go and see it! Moreover, after becoming the successor of the General Secretary, Andrei was exposed to more secrets. These secrets are not only related to the Soviet Union, but also to the entire human race.

💬 Readers say: *'Best translation site!'* See why → **wtr-lab.com**​​

"Marshal Andrei, Valisi is a very competent guard captain. He can protect you well. At the same time, our KGB department will do its best to ensure your travel safety." **** said.

Vasily was Andrei's guard captain before he became Andrei's follower. He was also from the Far East Military District. Vasily's loyalty was completely reliable.

📱 *Mobile-optimized reading!* No lag → **wtr-lab.com**​​

"Well, the special plane also needs to be inspected." Andre said, "And prepare a backup plan."

The last time Andrei came back, the supersonic commercial airliner was tampered with. After that, when **** took over the position of KGB chairman, he immediately launched an investigation and found two or three people who served the Freemasons. Boris alone did not have enough power to reach out to Andrei. At the same time, a traitor was also cleared on the Soviet aircraft carrier. It was this traitor who leaked Andrei's whereabouts.