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radioactive dregs of nuclear fission for spacecraft propulsion

harlock
in Engineering

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I didn't calculate anything till now, I don't know if radiation pressure is good enough

to propel a spacecraft(My question).

Obviously I'm talking about radiation pressure coming from radioactive dregs of nuclear fission!

 

How it works?

It's sufficient to release radiation in the space to have a propulsion in the opposite direction:

it's conservation of quantity of motion because radiation pressure is a palpable quantity of motion!

Edited by harlock

Radiation pressure is exceedingly weak. The force one feels is P/c, if that's directed in a linear fashion (e.g. a laser beam)

 

As came up recently in another thread, 1.21 GW gives you ~4N of thrust. Less if it's spread out. Zero if it's isotropic.

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