[AR] Re: Nothing to do with rockets.
- From: Anthony Cesaroni <anthony@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2021 02:18:15 +0000
Proposed solution was the same for nuclear bomber crews initially. Keep them
beyond reproductive age. A lot older. Multi-generational crews would come later
with bigger and better systems. Besides, pure controlled fusion was only 30
years away, same as it is today.
Anthony J. Cesaroni
President/CEO
Cesaroni Technology/Cesaroni Aerospace
http://www.cesaronitech.com/
(941) 360-3100 x1004 Sarasota
(905) 887-2370 x222 Toronto
-----Original Message-----
From: arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
Henry Spencer
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2021 10:04 PM
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AR] Re: Nothing to do with rockets.
On Thu, 30 Sep 2021, Anthony Cesaroni wrote:
Orion is still one my favorites in terms of luxury and comfort. 😊
 ...
https://miro.medium.com/max/4000/0*IgLCGwubyLinrf0i.jpg
Alas, one number that is missing from happy pictures like this is "radiation
dose to crew". I was horrified when I saw the numbers in one declassified
report on the 10m designs -- the per-trip doses were up in a range that, even
in the 1960s, would have been classed as "perhaps acceptable as a
once-in-a-lifetime dose in a dire emergency". Nothing in the text called
attention to this; if you didn't know what the numbers implied, you'd think
everything was fine, but it wasn't. (And yes, this was with the crew in a
heavily-shielded "powered flight station" while under thrust, not in the main
living quarters.)
I conjecture that this was a scaling issue. Orion is known to work better at
really large sizes, and my guess is that the 10m designs -- shrunk so that
Saturn Vs could get them to orbit, or at least clear of the atmosphere, before
nuclear startup -- just couldn't carry adequate shielding.
Between that, and the lack of the pure-fusion bombs that were necessary to get
fallout under control for Earth-surface launch, plus a few other little
environmental snags, it wasn't really a very appealing technology when looked
at closely. Spectacular, but not smart.
Henry
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