I totally agree with the previous post. How could a nuclear powered engine take almost a year to reach mars. Scientists are telling us with future propulsion we could reach mars in 3- 6 months.
I also had some plot issues too. SPOILER: I saw the whole incident and still have no idea how the Japanese fellow died.
">>I totally agree with the previous post. How could a nuclear powered engine take almost a year to reach mars."
You're confusing nuclear _fission_ engine with a nuclear _thermal_ engine.
A nuclear thermal engine is not too different from an aircraft carrier nuclear reactor - it just merely uses heat of a hot nuclear object to drive steam (just out of a rocket nozzle, rather than a steam turbine)
There are faster non-nuclear sea-faring ships than a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and this IS a very large amount of mass going to Mars. 6 months is amazingly fast for 'realistic' technology if we're using a ship of this size.
Your head has become too used to science fiction, rather than reality. It chose to use more realistic propulsion technology obtainable in the next twenty years.
Just to clarify, since both is fission based (but power utilized differently)
nuclear fission engine - uses the power of nuclear detonation to propel;
nuclear thermal engine - uses heat of nuclear to create gas (steam) to propel;
The thermal kind is less energy, but is more based on real current technology.
most likely going to be thermal as it is the safer choice.
shareThank you for the spoiler alert, unfortunately it didn't come soon enough to prevent me from reading it! I really appreciate that you ruined the surprise for me, Cheers! Next time you post a thread with spoilers, say so in the title... thank you.
shareThe Japanese guy died when that metal beam from the drill fell on him and crushed him.
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