No time to post more -but I do enjoy the technical points you folks bring up.
Politics - sorry my BS filter is clog again - sigh. That anti-space stuff just pisses me off especially when I see how much is pissed away elsewhere.
Back to the point of view I think people should build their own nuclear rockets. I'm so tired of the rehash of the SSTO chemical discussion when the a potential solution exist. Don't even of these people have guts to bring it up anymore.
Given this singularity discussion - you know Ray Kurzweil - or at least the trends that are occurring. It won't be long before the technology potential will occur to build private nuclear rocket.
How long before the cost of building a nuclear craft is realistic?
My guess would be 15 years and off earth - due to politics. And it will be private.
I do like to look at Bigelow Aerospace inflatables - I have seen a picture with the inflatable an engine. Now wouldn't that be cool if it was a nuclear engine.
And please don't quote me government money or plans - which btw is 70% pork and 30 % engineering. And I made up those relationship based of my friggin experience with the industry. Hell if I'm going to get worried about computing the efficiency of something like the government. The CEV is just more pork barrel with just enough of a promise ....
Personally - I think the next space race is between Government and Private Interest. Also I believe Nuclear power is the critical technology to this race.
Who knows - maybe one of you folks will do it. For me some of the warranties on my body parts have expired :*).
While a commercial venture by a major corporation or consortium to build, license and fly a nuclear rocket is possible, a truly private venture by a 'Burt Rutan' is very unlikely. The costs to simply license the reactor through the NRC would be prohibitive. We have had this discussion before here.
...and I would just add, that the needed test infrastructure to perform a responsible program of integrated systems testing safely would probably meet or exceed the actual development cost of flyable hardware. There's just no way around that....
Maybe the project would be based outside U.S./Western Europe/Japan highly regulated region. I still think the major governments might use international entities to stop the effort.
