Oxygen in an NTR provides an ISP barely better than chemical rockets, and how re... | Hacker News

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valuearb on June 24, 2020 | parent | context | favorite | on: The US military is getting serious about nuclear t...

Oxygen in an NTR provides an ISP barely better than chemical rockets, and how reactive would 1500K oxygen be with your reactor? with the additional mass requirements of massively heavy NTR engines, shielding and cooling oxygen doesnt make sense.

philwelch on June 25, 2020 [–]

Which is why you don’t use oxygen, at least in the traditional way. That’s my point.

Interestingly you can inject the oxygen into the exhaust to act as a high-thrust, low-Isp afterburner. That’s the LANTR concept.

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