Dangerous nuclear reactors, discovery-like ships

[kiwiak]

Im sure nuclear reactors were proposed many times.

I want to propose specific concept for them.

Reactors woudl be usefull for outer solar system manned exploration. Far away from the sun, solar panels woudl not give larger ships enough power and RTGs are good only for small probes. So you have to use reactors. But they are somehow harmful for crew.

So you have to place them AWAY from cockpit and any living modules. That woudl require to change way how larger ships are build. Now you can pack all parts next to each other, ships are bulky. With nuclear reactors players woudl be made do add long truss structures to separate reactors from rest of the ship. Or to separate cockipts from rest of the ship.

Discovery from 2001 was build this way.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/8898039.jpg

But what if we ignore danger for crew? After few months of exposure, they die.

Edited October 27, 2013 by kiwiak

[boomerdog2000]

We already have nuclear RTGs. Without utilities that actually draw the power to warrant a full on nuclear reactor there doesn't really seem to be a point.

[dudester28]

We already have nuclear RTGs. Without utilities that actually draw the power to warrant a full on nuclear reactor there doesn't really seem to be a point.

Actually, a reactor might be helpful for using ion engines far out in space or for transmitting data which takes a lot of power.

[boomerdog2000]

A nuclear reactor's weight will probably take away the benefit of an ion engine. Transmitting data perhaps they could be useful, but I've got some ships out by Jool using the Gigantor arrays and they haven't had any problems.

[arcangel_zer0]

I think that's exactly the point - Gigantor arrays (or any Solar panels AFAIK) shouldn't be able to give you nearly enough power to run a vessel at that distance. After all, the energy you can get falls off with the inverse-square of distance - and I'm not sure whether it's implemented for solar panels in the game. So, there does appear to be a gap into which such a system could fit without unbalancing the game.

In my opinion, the nuclear reactors do not have to have a large weight penalty (Russia built orbiting reactors at under 400kg each, although they lacked shielding), but they would have to require a large science input. There should, by that logic, be two reactor types - one for probes (light, unshielded) and one for manned vessels (heavy, shielded).

[Pulstar]

It is true that reactors need some use first as there aren't many power-hungry things in the game. The most obvious would be for resource mining and processing, which is probably why blutonium was featured on the chart and I don't think it was just to fill up the LV-N, solar panels would definitely be too little to power refineries.

I also think that they could make ion engines useful for bigger vessels assuming their power output to mass ratio would be enough to power large ion thrusters or big clusters of them. Then there is the possibility that we could get a VASIMR equivalent as a lower ISP but higher thrust engine requiring more power.