Can Nuclear Propulsion Take Us to Mars?

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Published 2021-04-17
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Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Animator: Mike Ridolfi
Sound: Graham Haerther
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Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster


References
[1] voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/frequently-asked-questions/fa…
[2] www.alumni.caltech.edu/distinguished-alumni/2018/5…
[3] voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
[4] voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar-mission/
[5] www.space.com/11337-human-spaceflight-records-50th…
[6] mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/night-sky/close-appro…
[7] Rocket Propulsion Elements
[8] www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs21grc.html
[9] arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.B34291
[10] www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-dawn-spacecraft-fires-…
[11] www.nasa.gov/feature/glenn/2020/the-propulsion-we-…
[12] www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/game_changing_…
[13] www.space.com/nuclear-thermal-space-propulsion-mom…
[14] www.lanl.gov/science/NSS/issue1_2011/story5full.sh… & www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002…
[15] descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/SciTechBook/series1/Goebel__…
[16] www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/nuclear-propul…
[17] academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/physics/sobel/nucphys/p….
[18] core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10557409.pdf
Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.

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All Comments (21)
  • @RealEngineering
    Woops. The outro audio revealed Real Sciences next video by mistake. It's gonna be a banger though, ye should subscribe.
  • @ronkirk5099
    I'm a 72 year old retired mechanical engineer and really feel lucky to have lived during the time we began to explore space with methods other than just telescopes. Just hope I live long enough to see a manned mission to Mars. Fingers crossed! Having just discovered your channel, I'm doing a little binge watching. Keep up the great videos.
  • @Larsosborne
    Hey Brian, I'm just a rocket engineer telling you that you did a fantastic job on this video. You explained everything perfectly and all of the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. You should be proud of this one!
  • I have always dreamed about us setting up a secondary launch point from the moon. Where we use a large portion of fuel to escape the earth. But, then refuel on a base at the moon and go from there with more fuel then we've ever had and the moon has way lesser gravity so it'll make this super effective towards efficiency.
  • @skipp3252
    Ion propulsion looks like it is straight out of science fiction. Amazing! So cool to see that it is probably gonna be a big part of the future. Just imagining a large space craft slowly drift with ion thrusters only to then fire up chemical combustion engines in a giant explosion in order to decelerate close to a celestial body has me creaming myself :O
  • @MATTW3R
    Pretty amazing for a species that just figured out flight in 1903.
  • @ansg70
    The only engineering channel on youtube with references.
  • @mrphysics2625
    They might be able to get around the leakage issue with liquid hydrogen by liningg the interior of the tanks with multiple layers of graphene and holding it at a static potential to repel the attoms although that comes with other challenges.
  • @konradd8545
    I just wanted to let you know that your videos pulled me out of a dark place of looming midlife crisis in my early 40's. I've started using Brilliant so I can be better at Maths and use it in my current CS degree with Machine Learning and AI. Thanks a lot! Greetings from Dublin!
  • @csnider_1281
    I was just about to get up and actually do something today.. that’ll have to wait 20mins
  • @danyalag3366
    Any problem in the world: exists Nuclear Energy: Sounds like a job for me.
  • @theauthor8901
    I love it when your videos are just pure science and not the pet theories of someone — great job!
  • @KhAnubis
    These animations seriously keep getting better and better
  • @niklasheese4939
    1.: You got a new animator or the animator learned a lot 2.: The videos got longer 3.: I like that (That is true for both the x-15 and this video)
  • @guz977
    I'm in love with this channel. It's so easy to understand and encourage to learn more Thank you so much
  • @DrWoodyII
    Really great presentation. I keep coming back to watch this one over and over. In the near future, we'll be adding thermonuclear propulsion to the mix. What a great time to be alive.
  • @Balin_James
    I feel silly for not knowing ion thrusters are real. That blue glow is so eerie, but so beautiful
  • @mikelarry2566
    Looking at this video now makes me wish I could have seen it when I was doing physics in highschool... just the way the equations relate to the actual real world applications is just so fascinating
  • Hats off to the explanation!, All the complicated concepts in such simple explanation is an work of art... Seriously impressed by the explanation, Keep doing this...