TFINER
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NASA
TFINER – Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket
James BickfordCharles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. The Thin-Film Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) is a novel space propulsion technology that enables aggressive space exploration for missions that are impossible with existing approaches. The concept uses thin layers of energetic radioisotopes to directly generate thrust. The emission direction of its natural decay products is biased by a substrate to accelerate the spacecraft.…
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NASA
Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER)
James BickfordCharles Stark Draper Laboratory New exciting missions, such as a rendezvous with a passing interstellar object, or a multi-target observing effort at the solar gravitational focus, require velocities that are well in excess of conventional rocketry. Exotic solar sail approaches may enable reaching the required distant localities, but are unable to then make the required propulsive maneuvers in deep space.…
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