NationStates Jolt Archive

NWN Broadcast

Today a spokesman for the newly formed Noviet Terrestrial Exit Agency, or NTEA, announced its beginning to do research into the principle of nuclear enhanced air breathing rockets for its first manned missions into space.
“With the President and Prime Minister finalizing the budget we have been given a mandate to begin testing and prototype construction of this new technology. Already we have test facilities setup in New Houston where we will test the engine and its thrust power. The principle behind it is rather than simply igniting a hydrogen based fuel to provide lift the hydrogen would be compressed in the fuel line and superheated to twenty five hundred degrees. The stream of super heated hydrogen would be fired into a feed of frozen oxygen pellets and combustion would take place at four thousand degrees. With this kind of thrust it is possible we will be able to achieve interplanetary cruising speeds of twenty nine thousand kilometres an hour.”

Our resident experts have confirmed that the physics are possible but certain power and containment issues need to be addressed when asked about them the spokesman had this to say.
“Well that’s what prototypes, research and testing are for aren’t they?”

Titus Cherub Notes: Test One

There was some faulty wiring in the prototype engine today, nearly killed us all. It was a material problem not a theoretical one. When the firing sequence began the thermometre’s calibration was off and the oxygen pellets were entered in too late. Rather than optimum four thousand degree combustion somewhere between five and six thousand degree combustion occurred. Here in the test facility we were fine but had this been a shuttle flight a combination nuclear FAE explosion would’ve occurred, I shudder to think. The team’s positive that the problem has been fixed and I’ve ordered a reworking of all electricals. We’re also building safety faults into the operating system so this won’t happen again. Our testing will be delayed somewhat but the team is not discouraged. We did manage to complete one full engine test fire and there’s a lot of data to run through.

Titus Cherub Notes: Test Six

This test ran perfect but after extended usage the feed system for the oxygen pellets heated up. Part way through the oxygen started to come in as a gas, this lead to flare ups which produced more heat than thrust, it also damaged the monitoring equipment inside the silo. This takes us back to the drawing board on the delivery system, the team is hopeful but I’m not so much. We need to design the feed chute of a material that can resist the conduction of four thousand degrees of temperature. I’m not scrubbing the project, our budget is more than adequate, I simply cannot see us coming up with the material anytime soon. Its unfortunate with all the media attention on us right now I don’t think the public realizes this could take years, I must confess that I did get swept up in the hype but science is a slow and graceful mistress, an elegant lady who takes her time getting somewhere, whether your in a hurry or not.


Titus Cherub Notes: Test Twenty Three

Nothing new to report today, we overheated another feed system. On a positive note Eleanor has devised better observing devices so we don’t require replacements after every flare up.

Titus Cherub Notes: Test Thirty Eight

It’s become fairly predictable now. I can almost guess to a tee when the feed system will fail, back to the drawing boards,… again.