twohedwlf t1_jd18c5k wrote on March 21, 2023 at 2:17 AM

Reply to comment by twohedwlf in Would it work to get 1G in a spacecraft going to Mars using acceleration? by OysteinM

To give some idea of the amount of fuel needed. Say we wanted to JUST send a SpaceX raptor a 2 day burn(About the 1g time to Mars from u/trogon link) about 230,000,000 lbs of fuel and would start off at about 1/460th of a G acceleration. (Ignoring tanks, structural supports etc.) That gives an average acceleration over 2 days of 1/230th of a G.

So, you could never achieve it with combustion rocket engines.

Nuclear engines have much higher ISP, but only in the region of 2-3 times so they'd use roughly 1/3rd the fuel.

Background-Banana574 t1_jd1dqv5 wrote on March 21, 2023 at 3:00 AM

You know how to get to Minmus don’t you?

Triabolical_ t1_jd1e0k4 wrote on March 21, 2023 at 3:02 AM

Nuclear engines tend to be both heavy and have low thrust, which mostly cancels out the Isp advantage.