Timeline for Radioisotope Direct Kinetic Propulsion (using alpha particles)
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 10 at 17:01 | comment | added | user13964273 | It doesn't changes anything. The total impulse of the decay products is too small for propulsion. | |
| Dec 10 at 6:31 | history | edited | Tyson Zimmerman | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1673 characters in body; edited title
|
| Dec 10 at 0:49 | comment | added | naturallyInconsistent | You are wrong. Neutron degradation is a very serious problem. | |
| Dec 9 at 17:37 | comment | added | Tyson Zimmerman | From what i have heard, neutron emitting isotopes would not work very well. I had previously and incorrectly assumed that plutonium 238, the radioisotope commonly used in space applications, undergoes neutron decay. This was incorrect, pu238 undergoes alpha decay. | |
| Dec 9 at 17:28 | comment | added | Tyson Zimmerman | @naturallyInconsistent degradation from neutrons would be expected, but i wouldn't expect it to be too much of a problem. | |
| Dec 9 at 13:15 | answer | added | user13964273 | timeline score: 1 | |
| Dec 9 at 8:06 | comment | added | PM 2Ring | Why neutrons? You can't steer them with electromagnetic fields, and isotopes that decay by pure neutron emission have very tiny half-lives. So you'd need to use something like californium, which is fissile, or produce the neutron beam some other way. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_emission & en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_source | |
| Dec 9 at 6:18 | comment | added | naturallyInconsistent | How are you going to deal with neutron damage on your reflector? | |
| S Dec 9 at 6:11 | review | First questions | |||
| Dec 9 at 7:16 | |||||
| S Dec 9 at 6:11 | history | asked | Tyson Zimmerman | CC BY-SA 4.0 |