Mar 272011
Continuing with the theme of “Nukes Я Awesome,” here’s a NASA sketch from 1963 of the “Reactor in-Flight Test” stage. This was to be launched atop a Saturn V and was straight out of the greenpissers worst nightmares. The S-II stage of the Saturn V, as it turned out, was a dummy stage… so RIFT was supposed to fire up the nuclear rocket while still sub-orbital. Even better, it was supposed to *stay* sub-orbital, splashing down in the Atlantic some 1300 miles downrange where the reactor could safely sink straight to the bottom (and, in the fevered imaginations of the anti-nuclear crowd, wake up the Old Ones).
Note, this is the Reactor In-Flight Test, not the Reactor In-Orbit Test.
11 Responses to “RIFT: 1”
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I remember when the anti-nuke crowd didn’t want a satellite launched into space by the Space Shuttle because they were afraid of another Challenger-like accident.
I would say the Space Shuttle was extremely successful based off the number of flights into space it had and only two accidents. What is even more amazing is that we didn’t have an accident with the Saturn rockets. NASA has an impressive safety record.
or the anti-nuke crowd who protest against launch of saturn probe Cassini
with RTG power supply on a Titan IV…
the sovjet engineers had simelar Idea for RIFT for a ICBM program
here the rocket had to inpact in a artificial lake, in Siberia
but that fevered imaginations of the soviet generals “wat if: it miss the target ?!”
and cancel the YaRD ICBM program
by the way,
the USAF had also a NERVA powerd ICBM studies, still undisclosed
I might just err on the side of caution on this one.
Jim
What’s the thing that looks like a ball on a arm hanging off the top of the stage? Telemetry antenna ?
This says the RIFT second stage is to be live also:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20030066010_2003075531.pdf
> This says the RIFT second stage is to be live
RFIT, like a lot of those early Apolo/Saturn-era programs, was all over the place. Some designs used a Saturn V; some a Saturn I, some a Saturn C-2 or C-3. This *particular* one used a Saturn V/dead-S-II.
@Pat Flannery:
>What’s the thing that looks like a ball on a arm hanging off the top of the stage?
that must be a helium tank for pressurerise the hydrogene tank
If RIFT is Reactor In-Flight Test, why isn’t Reactor In-Orbit Test called RIOT?
Kind of an odd way to hook a helium tank on tank onto it.
It’s going to swing all over the place with no base attachment to the top of the tank.
I think the helium pressurization tanks are at the upper end of the NERVA’s reactor.
Hey, Pat, thanks for the link. Brief but interesting reading!
Back in the good old days when we HAD to beat the Russkies to the Moon, all sorts of weird ideas were considered. Tossing a live reactor into the South Atlantic was a normal idea in those days.
My guess: The “ball on a stick” is a directional microwave or radio antenna for the telemetry downlink.