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A space... scooter?

Robert McCall_

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Super Nexus: Nuclear Powered Rocket

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Besides the Orion Drive, Which propulsion system do you think would be the best for a heavy manned interplanetary spaceship?

Putting the Orion Drive aside and its offshoots: Inertial Containment Fusion, and the like, I'd go with VASIMR as a plausible spacedrive. While it doesn't have the Umph of an Orion, it does have a good deltaV and ISP, so tooling around a star system is a breeze. The downsize is that it requires the gods' own energy. A 200MW reactor to power the thing for a 39 day trip to Mars with a crew of 5-6 people. (That's technically "heavily" manned by today's standards.)

Every other proposed drive requires technology that we don't have or the risks of the drive, (Nuclear Light Bulb anyone?) to the crew would rule them out. At this point, if you're writing a story, just call it a "torch" drive and not worry about the nuts and bolts.

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What do you think about spaceships in Expanse TV series?

They're pretty good, but definitely have a lack of propellant tankage and suffer some TARDIS issues by being bigger on the inside. But not by much. The modelers and the set designers did their best to match them up.

But they are powered by Hollyweird space drives. The Epstein Drive is on the edge of plausibility, but just. No matter how efficient a drive can be, you still have to have sufficient propellant to move it.

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Space Station Freedom

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It's my 13 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

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Russia's Other Space Shuttle: VTOL MTKVA

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Martin Nova Post-Saturn Reusable Rocket

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British Interplanetary Society: Project Daedalus

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Real space project / cancelled

HOTOL

Here’s HOTOL on a runway somewhere in Australia. HOTOL was single-stage-to-orbit concept craft developed by British Aerospace in the 80s, unfortunately it has never been built.

To learn more about HOTOL, you can visit links below:

http://www.astronautix.com/h/hotol.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOTOL

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Rockwell C-1057 "Breadbox" Space Shuttle Concept

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4k, My model of the unused "Dragonfly" design for Discovery

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SpaceX Falcon XX Super Heavy Concept

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Robert McCall, 1970

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McDonnell Douglas X-33 SSTO Reusable Launch Vehicle

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Boeing Rocket Concepts

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Robert McCall