Atomic Rockets

September 29, 2012 4:49 PM

Atomic Rockets is chock full of stuff to tickle the imagination of anyone who has enjoyed science fiction accounts of space travel. You can move your cursor over the "Show topic list" button in the top right corner of the page and start exploring.
posted by Egg Shen (8 comments total)

:::::squeee:::::

Now to get This Place Has No Atmosphere in there. YA represent!
posted by tilde at 5:48 PM on September 29, 2012

This.
Is.
Nuts.
posted by Chutzler at 5:52 PM on September 29, 2012

More than just a double, but perhaps worth linking to again?

Also, MeFi's own.
posted by jiawen at 7:40 PM on September 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Worth linking to again just for there is no stealth in space article.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:27 AM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

One of my absolute favorite sites! I bookmarked this years ago and still come back to it.
posted by lineofsight at 6:13 AM on September 30, 2012

On the other hand, the concept of atomic rockets isn't farfetched - or even in the future. No, NASA is no longer thinking about exploding bombs behind a rocket for propulsion, but several probes (including Curiosity, now on Mars, are powered by plutonium. And as I recall NASA has also already tested an atomic particle emitting mini-rocket to test the concept of an extremely slowly - but perpetually - accelerating rocket that could reach other star systems far more quickly than any other source of propulsion.
posted by Andy Updegrove at 2:08 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Indeed, it is an unsolved problem in physics to build a rocket without using atoms.
posted by DU at 4:42 AM on October 1, 2012

Ah, more than just a double, but I'm not complaining. ;)
posted by Nyrath at 6:32 AM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]