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I love how this video started with rail travel 160 years ago. I remember talking to my Great Grandmother about her life being alive before the first flight of the Wright Brothers and seeing man walk on the moon during her lifetime.

Check out the steam engine at 0:45. Notice the two closest tracks with a water trough running through their center. Some engines had a water scoop, used for refuling (steam uses water) while still traveling at speed. No need to stop divert and under a water tower to refill, trains would run to a tighter schedual.

I was just 5 years old when we first landed on the moon and the thought of possibly still being alive to witness the dawn of the era of routine interplanetary travel makes me very happy! What a time to be alive

Fun fact - the NERVA test engines were called Kiwis because they were flightless birds. (Source - one of my professors in college actually worked on NERVA, had some interesting stories including the destruction test to see just what the maximum power output was -- no, didn't explode, however, it did shake itself apart as fuel rods were being spit out the nozzle).

Just to be clear the "bimodal" isn't the NTR/NEP but the modes of the reactor itself. Since it can be both a rocket thruster (NTR mode) and also a power reactor (which then powers the NEP mode) it is known as a "bimodal reactor". The "fun" part here is that by adding a liquid oxygen injector system to the NTR mode you can greatly increase the thrust of the NTR which has benefits for short length/high trust segments of the voyage. This then turns it into a TRI-modal power plant. (Might want to check out the "Triton NTR" concept)

Favorite Mega Project to date. As a Rocket Scientist, I declare kudos for phenomenal blazer performance AND an incredibly well researched video.

Although nuclear thermal rocketry can offer some advantages in terms of payload, claims of a 45-day trip to Mars using this technology are not supported by critical evaluations. The reality is that the typical ideal trajectory for a Mars transit takes approximately 180 days and requires a propulsive delta-v of about 4.2 km/s. This is only slightly more than the minimum energy trajectory of 8.5 months which requires a delta-v of approximately 3.8 km/s. However, attempting to reduce the transit time to just 140 days would require a delta-v of over 6 km/s and would result in a halving of the effective payload. Reducing the transit time further to 130 days would halve the payload again and make direct entry impossible, requiring additional deceleration burns further decreasing payload. It is important to have a basic understanding of delta-v and orbital mechanics and not to repeat dubious claims without proper evaluation. Claims of a 45-day trip to Mars are likely based on overly optimistic estimations of nuclear system mass and rare close conjunctions, while also neglecting the need for deceleration prior to atmospheric entry for fast transits and ignoring the resulting massive reductions in payload capacity.

There was another nuclear powered design I saw in the late 60s. it was called Orion, a name often recycled in space work. The premise was you built a REALLY BIG steel plate, with REALLY BIG springs, like coils on McPherson struts. You then built a large cabin and storage structures connected to the coils. You then exploded a tiny nuclear bomb behind the plate, calculated for position and yield very carefully. The shock wave would push the ship in the desired direction. As soon as the first bomb's effect dissipated, a second bomb would be detonated behind the plate, pushing the ship again. Repeat this until you are halfway to Mars, when you flip the ship 180 degrees, then repeat the process to slow the ship. This would require a lot of radiation shielding, but what the heck, that plate alone will weigh between 20,000 and 50,000 tons. The article said, with enough bombs, you could reasonably reach 15 to 20 % of light speed, making trips to Alpha Centauri possible in a crew's lifetime. As for the Greenies worried about radiation in space, have you any idea what's out there now? Damn good thing we have the magnetosphere and Van Allen belts.

Finally some real progress on the space propulsion tech.

My personal preference is the nuclear plasma thermal engine, with fissionable plutonium finely divided, stored in neutron damped storage, and pumped out into the nozzle with duterium, fissioning in place thanks to magnetic confinement, and bathing the plasma in a 1H gas which then becomes a 23,000 deg. C plasma also confined with near "c" exhaust speed.

I love how there was an ad just after he said, "Wait for it," perfect timing!

Thank you for covering this concept! Love seeing nuclear engines getting wider coverage. You should look into the wonderfully awesome idea of a Nuclear Salt Water Rocket or NSWR. A idea that could provide high thrust and high efficiency. Basically the closest we could (in theory) built today that would match the engines in The Expanse!

This idea was conceived, tested, found practical in the late1950’s and into 1960’s as the Nuclear Impulse rocket, which was referenced in TOS Star Trek Impulse Power, and where to be used as Space Tugs to Mars. With the end of manned missions into space, and going to Mars, the already developed NEVA project was shelved.

Not a bad video to release on First Contact Day.

Love this! Really hoping that the bimodal system gets chosen and not only works, but works SPECTACULARLY well. The NERVA research - or maybe I should say, research related to nuclear engines - came back more than once between 1973 and 2003. The rocket scientists have done their best not to let this one go!

Fantastic video. I've been following these developments for a while, and now that Simon is talking about it, I know it's real.

Watch a lot of your channels and can't get enough from science and the universe. More topics like these!!🤓

Continue to be curious and come up with these famtastic videos Simon We love them

The Space Shuttle probably set back overall space exploration in hindsight, but it was the single greatest advertisement for the space program, that thing was sexy. Great video! Thank you!

This right here is exactly the key. I mean I don't know if this idea will work out but we DO need some sort of way to make the trip faster and safer. Compare how getting to Oregon is via wagon train (like in the famous game) versus getting their via railroad and you'll see what I mean.

LMAO at the intro. Simon starts talking about going West in the 19th century before the railroads and I'm like "will they make a Donner Party joke" and you made a Donner Party joke! Love it!

I appreciate the Iain M Banks reference Feersum Endjinn

something about that rocket that could "get someone to mars in 45 days". It would most likely be closer to 90 days. Bc you need to break for roughly the same amount of time you accelerate at those speeds or you'll either shoot right past mars, or slam into it. It's possible we could do a slingshot looping pattern between mars and it's moons to siphon off energy. But 45 days is a very "in laboratory conditions" statement is all.

One of the older Mazda diesel engines used to use a pressure wave supercharger. I believe it was called the "Comprex" supercharger. Really neat physics, but built up too much carbon to be reliable.

Every time I hear "crewed mission", I think "No, these are rather sophisticated missions, thank you..."

As Thomas Sowell says, in most instances, there are only trade-offs, not solutions.

I like that simon covers the themes that i want to know more about.

Forget about Mars. Let's get to the asteroid belt and use the material there to build 100 million O'Neill cylinders. Then we can let those slowly drift to the Kuiper belt and build a billion more.

Wait…wait, Doc! Are you tellin’ me that this sucker is nuclear?!

I saw the title and wondered briefly if this was the return of Orion. Interesting content anyway.

Don’t know why but your door handle was doing my head in, just being there throughout the video, apart from that probably my favourite video of yours so far

Thank you for this. You always have cook things to say, but this blows me away

All that Nasa or SpaceX need to do is to hook up a spaceship to *Simon* - he's nuclear-powered! I'm betting on Simon hosting the first UKposts channel to broadcast from Mars!

Awesome video as usual 😊

WOW this video was fantastic. Not being the best at science I sometimes have difficulty in understanding some of the techno-babel, but this video was very succinct.

Movie-universe NASA spends over half its budget dealing with Matt Damon's space shenanigans.

1:38 a man. a plan. 7:04 race to Mars 10:53 fearsome engine 14:58 an explosive history

"...microgravity and other stuff that does things to your body that watching MSNBC does to your brain..." I actually had to pause in a fit of laughter. An unexpected bit of humor, and one I wouldn't mind seeing more often in future :)

NTP was the propulsion of choice in the early 1950's TV "space opera" shows like SPACE PATROL, ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER and TOM CORBETT: SPACE CADET and was the classic "atomic rocket"

Great video… well researched 👍👍👍

keep in mind that the faster you go the more time you need to slow down, seems like we'd be hitting diminishing returns pretty quickly at these speeds

NASA's Ion Propulsion engines reportedly can propel a spacecraft up to 200K MPH but it has low thrust and takes a long time to reach full acceleration. Still, much more feasible than chemical rockets.

Thanks for yet another space video I can share with my son. Although, I'll have to explain to him your recent fascination with cannibalism.

Yes - Favorite mega projects video!

Maybe the need to expel heat could be a third propulsion system? the right shaped reflectors could use the heats natural property of diffusion to add another small force helping the whole process.

Did someone say nuclear?! 😂

Any advanced alien civilization watching are surely going to mock us. Would be like watching the Beverly hillbillies driving down a street ... "Look at those monkeys strapping nuclear bombs to the back of their craft for propulsion and polluting the universe with radioactivity. They even attached a laser pen to the rear!"

To be fair, back in the 50's they were trying to find uses for nuclear technology for EVERYTHING. It was the new big thing, and they still hadn't worked out how dangerous it could be. Nuclear rockets though... Makes sense to me. Accidents would of course tragically kill a few people, but at least it won't be a Chernobyl type catastrophe.

Dude. I smoke watching your videos. I find myself drawn in. Your tone. Your sense of intrigue. Always keeps me hooked

Such a vehicle could never, and I cannot stress this enough. Ever enter the atmosphoere of any planet we want to inhabit. As a cruise ship to ferry goods and people back and forth, perfect.

Excellent stuff bro

You forgot to mention that the pressure wave rotor rockets would use an aero spike which has also been around for decades, but now has a much more useful reason To be used. This flattens the ISP curve between atmospheric and vacuum engINes vs a bell.

I'm just as shocked as anybody. There's still universities in Florida?!

It occurs to me that relying on thrust over long times leads to the risk of missing the planet completely if the engine glitches even for a day or so.

That was very slick about the rocket scientist and wearing a nice blazer doing a UKposts channel 😂😂😂😂. Love your sly dry humor

Nuclear pulse propulsion or external pulsed plasma propulsion is a hypothetical method of spacecraft propulsion that uses nuclear explosions for thrust.[1] It originated as Project Orion with support from DARPA, after a suggestion by Stanislaw Ulam in 1947.

SpaceX's Starship is the Hyperloop of space craft.

I find it frustrating that we could have done all this so much sooner!

I think the nuclear engine that directly uses the thrust from fission which Scott Manley made a video on about probably only now needs enough propellant for maneuvering.

what a time to be alive...45 days to mars awhile we're still killing eachother because we can't get along.. lol

Somebody's gonna need a lot of Dramamine. 😥

Dat MSNBC joke 😂

Fun Fact about space travel, there is no resistence in space. So there is nothing to slow a traveling ship down. Hitting light speed exiting the the atmosphere toward mars the only problem you'd have is stopping.

I thought about this before it was even thought of then a few years later i start seeing more and more about it..This has happened to a lot of recent inventions..I swear somebody is reading my mind for ideas then creating them..

I wonder if having a flare of radiation blasting off the back of your craft would affect radio communications in any way?

The casual dunking on MSNBC was fucking great

Well done to this episode's author with the Iain M Banks Culture reference!

The whole western expansion point is interesting to think about. To go from east to west coast used to take months if not a year. Now you can fly NY to LA and back all between sunrise and sunset. Wild.

Imagine how far advanced we would be if politicians were not involved…. Or if 10% of the defense budget went into scientific research for space exploration

The Expanse… here we come!

Can you do an episode specifically on the NASA NERVA rocket engine. It's a very interesting design and is amazing at what they were able to achieve more than 50 years ago.

The first honest and unbiased report on the GERD. Bravo!!!

"as watching msnbc does to your brain... ruin it." lol nice quip, and certainly true.😀

This is one of the reasons i dont see mars missions working: travel time. Its probably possible without a much faster flight mode, but there would be absolutely no way to help them if something went wrong with current speeds

😂😂😂 I love the placement of the ads, "Wait for it!!!". 🙈

If Humankind chooses to stay on this planet without colonising other planets and moons in at least this system, our species will die out on this planet. All of our eggs, at this time, are in one basket. What most people do not realise is that the sooner we get this off the ground, so to speak, the better off Humankind will be.

Some people are so scared of nuclear pollution that they'll drown in non-nuclear pollution.

You should do a series of modern day additions to wonders of like the three famous dome stadiums in America. Like the astrodome and the Superdome

That absolutely is one hell of a sharp blazer

I'm no rocket scientist, so I appreciate simple terms like "gigantic space fart".

Watching MSNBC does to your brain…..it ruins it. Simon is right again

Loved the video however . . I think a more accurate parallel would be the invention of the sail or more modern one inventing the steam engine - a Mach effect thruster would be the US transcontinental or a hyperspace jump like the Suez Canal

As a kid I was always excited by the idea of space travel and colonizing space for exploration and growth for us as a species because even at a young age I understood that the Earth's resources are not unlimited. So exploring space seamed reasonable, we're going to need a new home at some point obviously. I do hope to see it happen within my lifetime.

Oh that dig at MSNBC was beautiful - well done sir!

Im guessing ut will be a gella of a lot cheaper to put stuff in space as well with those specific impulses. Would be nice to see a video on the economics of such rockets

Would this pressure wave supercharger work similarly to the exhaust expansion chamber on a two stroke engine?

Brilliant episode

Hi, I'm newish here, but have we had a MegaProject on Big Ben yet? I don't know very much about the process, but I'd love to learn!

Our air and space museum has a NERVA engine on display. It's in the back by the Saturn V engine bell and is beautifully atomic punk.

You had me at supercharger. I'm all in! :)

Would this allow you to have constant acceleration and deceleration like in the expanse? Like the flip and burn technique?

for years i thought this guy and babish where the same person and that he had an amazing range of videos

I've asked this question for years. I've always found it strange that we use fuel in a place where refueling is practically impossible 😂

I had an idea that I called SPACON (Space Conveyor) that would use a large space station that would be assembled in orbit and then boosted into a fast orbit between Earth and Mars. The station would be usually uninhabited but when a crew wants to go to Mars they would boost to the station, refuel and then wait for the station to approach Mars where they would hop off and land on Mars. If the SPACON was moving fast enough it would 'outrun' mars and earth several times a year. That way all they would have to do is take off from Mars as SPACON approached them on an overtake orbit. Then they wait on the station until it approaches Earth and then jump off and land back on Earth.

2 very major things you forgot to mention. 1. You cannot just go as fast as you can in space because the G forces would kill a human. 2. If a nuclear powered rocket explodes on the ground then you can say good bye to all the facilities there. If it explodes in the atmosphere it could cause an international incident. If it falls to earth it could radiate a city.

Well there is a real reason we have not returned to the Moon, nor made any serious effort to get to Mars. We found out that the cheese that the moon is made of easily be bought up in Wisconsin. An interesting trip along interstate 90 and 94, but far less dangerous and costly. The reason that the Mars trip has fallen apart, is roughBearing the question, what are we gonna do when we get there?

We're not whizzing around, we're brint being drawn through the Galaxy behind the sun. In a spiral configuration, get it right.

You missed the NTP/NEP programs during Bush 1 in the late 1980s. Hope they do it this timer.

The best ride to mars is locked up in Lockheed Martins underground garage…Ben Rich, former CEO of skunk works did say “we can take ET home and back again”.