Atomic Aircraft

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 07:33:48 -0800, Ron Wanttaja
wrote in
:

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 07:49:28 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote:

On Wed, 20 Dec 2006 14:33:32 -0600, "Danny Deger"
wrote in
:


"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
snip

But weight isn't an issue in the micro gravity of space ...

You can not be any more wrong about this. In space craft design, weight is
EVERYTHING.

Only during launch.

Only if you never, EVER need to use thrust again, once your booster shuts down.
If you plan on keeping a precise orbit or are charting a course to another body
in space, then you'll want to keep the weight down to minimize the expenditure
of onboard fuel. Also, if you're going to want to point the vehicle in any
particular direction, lower weight will let you get away with smaller/lighter
attitude control devices and/or use less fuel to do it.

Ron Wanttaja

What would you estimate the ratio between the quantity of fuel
expended during launch to the amount of fuel needed to accomplish the
things that you mention?