Why they need space force. Steven L. Kwast hints that there is technology that China is using that the west is not. I wonder what? Bill Knows. We could have used nuclear rockets decades ago but chose not to use it for safety reasons. The technology is there we need to act. We may have technology, Sabre, that even makes Nuclear rockets old hat. The race is back on.
Meanwhile the left is going bananas that space force has camouflaged uniforms?!? What fools. [Here] I made points in the comments that camouflage is not worn for servicing the base but in case the base is attacked and you have to fight to take it back.
One reply on “Steven L. Kwast on space force.”
The implication is that the Chinese are launching two stage rockets with a nuclear thermal rocket on the upper stage giving them 3 to 5 times the publicly stated payload. They are trading safety for lift capacity. They have several unmanned vessels in space that are much more capable than assumed. Steven L. Kwast says there are documents in Mandarin to bare this out. I’ve stared hunting.
Once in Orbit you can refuel the nuclear rocket for cislunar missions or beyond, or re-purpose the isotopes to make a nuclear power system or a small nuclear warhead.
Note: The US air force has been launching the Boeing X-37 has had several classified long endurance space missions too. They could be testing out something very powerful too. I don’t believe in secret space fleets, black space programs or alien conspiracies but big breakthroughs like new plasma drives with higher thrust and 1000+ ISP may be possible.
VASIMR is potentially 2.31 kW/kg at 3000 to 5000 ISP but esquires a lot of power.
I’ve seen the papers on another thruster but they seem to have vanished from the web. Its two ion engines chained together. One with low thrust, high ion production (Helicon double layer thruster (HDLT)) feeding a high thrust, low ion production but vector-able Farnsworth based plasma rocket.
The former HDLT on its own has thrust of 2.8 mN at ISP of 280s and is an Australian National University project. I’ve met the researchers.
The latter Farnsworth device dates from the 1970’s and was invented by the inventor of the TV. It has very little thrust and poor ISP but can in theory boost the ISP, ion velocity hugely. Its a powerful mix.
There are also other devices that have now been tested including new reactors, VASIMR, Sabre, Spaceship one. all have past with flying colours. We have the technology.