Titan's Dragonfly Test // New Nuclear Rocket // Shadow Universe 

if I am still around in 2034, I will be 85 years old. I can always hope to see what Titan actually looks like. Thanks for the information.

Imagine power going down for a month ... in Puerto Rico we call that a Tuesday.

The Dragonfly mission to Titan is something I’m really looking forward to. Isn’t it a shame that Dragonfly won’t be visiting one of the lakes or oceans just to take some awesome pictures? Why is that?

I feel like the images we get out of titan are going to be unlike any world we've probed so far. When the huygens probe got that grainy, distorted foortage of its touchdown; I still was amazed.

How did I miss this gem of a channel?!! I'll get ALL notifications now. Space geeks unite!!!

I believe the main reason why Dragonfly will not visit the methane lakes on Titan is that the lakes, found mostly nearly the North Pole, will be in darkness at the time when Dragonfly arrives, making exploring them just about impossible. So Dragonfly will arrive at the wrong time of the Titan Year as far as exploring the lakes is concerned. There may be a few lakes in the equatorial regions where Dragonfly is headed but if Dragonfly does find any and explodes them, it will be a matter of luck and not intention. This is still a very exciting mission and if all goes well. Dragonfly will make so many wonderful discoveries and add our knowledge of Titan immensely. We shall just have to wait and see!

Fraiser, a correction to the video: being an octo-copter (or a hex copter, a quad copter, etc.) does not prevent a vehicle from being a helicopter. In fact, the inclusion of "copter" in the description implies that it _is_ a helicopter. There are things that can prevent a vehicle from being a helicopter (being a tilt-rotor, being just a normal plane, having unpowered rotors, etc.), but as long as there's at least one rotor, rotor count is _not_ one of those things.

I hear Titan's atmosphere is so dense, You could fly an Ornithopter in it

The TDT! Great to hear about that tunnel, enjoyed some time there.

Love to hear your take on fission fragment rockets.

This is exactly what I needed right now

Awsome, this is the kind of thing which cn be a game changer for Mars exploration too

You won't have to wait that long ! Expected arrival on Titan 2034 ! So only 11 years lol .

Professor, I subscribed. Your information about the Earth status is amazing.

Man that's awesome it seems like so much weight to get into orbit for the nuclear power propulsion!

This is an amazing time for space exploration. I am sure people will be saying this for generations on, but the innovation and growth is exciting.

Thanks for the news, Fraser! 😊 I fly quadcopters, but never flew an octo... Should be interesting. Now they're building big octacopters they call cinelifters, to carry those big cameras used for cinema and so on. Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

that which looks like a black rip in reality a few decimeters in length that sometimes appears a few meters away from me in the night is quite beautiful

Big fan of nuclear thermal, thanks for covering it! There's a problem with getting to Mars faster though - the 6 month transfer time allows for a free-return-trajectory should you miss your Mars orbital insertion (MOI) burn. A faster transit time does not. If you get there in

Frasier, thanks for what you do. This stuff is all cool af.

There are some fast spectrum molten salt reactors under development right now that may be well suited for the kind of combined nuclear powered rocket being proposed here. They run at very high temperature and in some cases like the Elysium reactor will use table salt as the liquid medium in the reactor. That design will also be simplified compared to some other designs, it's basically an empty reactor vessel "can" with heat exchangers. The fluid salt both contains the fissile material and is pumped from the reactor into the heat exchangers to provide heat to electrical generators or in this case also to heat propellant. The first iteration of the Elysium reactor will run at over 600 degrees celsius and later versions with high temperature alloy vessels made with hastelloy at over 1,300 degree celsius.

WOW!!! Those are serious rotors !!!

The new Fusion pulse generators, would make a nifty spaceship propulsion system.

10:00 - Good to see New Zealand contributing exactly 0.0% CO2.

I wonder if there's a way to arrange such a hybrid rocket such that the ejected mass is also accelerated by the ion drive, getting more bang for the buck essentially.

I'm excited for the Titan 'copter!

Thanks for the news!

Hey Frasier, shadow astronomy sounds really "cool" but how do astronomers tell the difference between a genuine shadow caused by a foreground object on the CMB verses a temperature variation in the CMB itself? Also, is shadow astronomy done with other cosmic background spectra (radio, X-ray ect,)?

Interesting topics and good info! Thanks

I've been reading up on nuclear-powered rockets and such for as long as they've been being even hinted at, because this kind of science absofreakinglutely fascinates me. And now the nuclear-powered copter to explore Titan‽ That one makes me want to jump up & down with excitement! SIX WEEKS to Mars‽‽ Holy freaking _~bleeping bleepety bleeping bleep,~_ that's so incredibly cool! What a crazy cool idea!! But I hope they can figure out the moon craft to get it where it needs to be. The solar flare thing... that could make such a CRAZY huge difference for us! Having weather warnings for getting a few days longer time to get prepared would be so helpful! If only catching those promise-breakers would have some sort of weight behind it, some kind of fines, at minimum, it would make all of these abilities meaningful. The fetal stars are fascinating, but the shadow thing made a Doctor Who episode come to mind, with the monsters called the Vashta Nerada, and the warning phrase "count the shadows!" Thanks for the coolness, Fraser! ❤️❤️

Probably my favourite show on RU-vid

Yep, if anything or anyone is left it'll be awesome. Good job Brandon.

I so hope the nuclear rocket plan works out. 45 days to Mars would be better than any movie.

Excellent stuff bro

Titan mission seems so amazing. Can't wait!

More NIAC please!

Good video - no loud music ruining it

Thanks for these news

You do a great job..thanks

9:32 thank you for that

I think your under estimating the power of super solar flares, if you look at the 1859 carriton one it set the telegraph machines and wires on fire, if one of those hit today it would mostly likely would send us back to pre electricity state especially since our magnetic filed is actually failing, down around 20% and this is speeding up.

Chef's kiss for Anton's use of memes.

these ideas are interesting for running around our solar system and developing robotic systems for planet exploration which is really about mining operations for large multi-national companies that will create new industries and plenty of jobs generating and repairing the many space vehicles that will be necessary.

Excellent video, like!

I prefer pulsar's option. How about a week or better yet using the electric charge of the solar wind.

It's about time. Nuclear Power is the way to go.

45 days to mars is an incredible 253000 miles per hour! Now that's movin'

Hey Fraser - awesome prresentation & info!! FYI, in case no one ever told you, without the goatee you could EASILY pull off an awesome Richard Dreyfuss from close encounters !

We used a helecoptor on Mars but this is a temprature range that we know how to work with composites that will not shatter in the cold. Titan is no where near this warm, and I wouder if the equipment would shatter if it was bumped even a little?

Titan's super cold, dense atmosphere is just crying out for a fleet of balloons drifting through it's sky powered by nuclear batteries or such and supplemented with a mini wind powered dynamoes. Use titan's own atmosphere to fill the balloons then just heat things up a bit. Balloons have the potential to last years and could be networked.

Imagine what would happen if a solar maximum coincided with a collapse of the earth's magnetic field during a pole reversal event. It looks like the magnetic field is heading towards a reversal event quite soon.

Titan has to be one of the most interesting objects in the solar system because it has a lot of similarities to earth. I would even say that aside from its cold temperature and lower gravity, it is the most earth-like object in the solar system on it's surface and the only one other than earth that a human could actually stand on without a pressure suit. Although to be fair, you would still need to be very well insulated from the cold and certainly have a supply of oxygen to breath which could possibly be combustible in the Titanian atmosphere. Also while I don't think it would be immediately harmful, there is no way of knowing what the long term effects of skin exposure or trace inhalation of the actual contents of Titian's atmosphere would be until a human far braver than I am goes on what might be a one-way trip to that moon and lives there long enough to find out.

Fun and interesting as always

My understanding has always been that nuclear thermal propulsion is lower thrust than chemical propulsion, but higher specific impulse. The higher specific impulse is the advantage of the NTR because it can gain a higher velocity while using less fuel.

Got to admit this will be interested

Apropos different propulsion systems, the impossible engine or whatever the name was, no one are talking about that anymore, ok, but, there was another strange idea where we do not hear anything anymore, an elderly guy working on some kind of technology that mechanically should move back and forth, but change the mass in one direction, accelerate a spaceship, I think this solution was kind of covered here some years ago? Any news on any of these relatively unorthodox attempts to move trough space?

Awesome content!!!!

Thanks. Fun channel 👍🏻

Nuclear thermal rockets dont have quite the thrust that is possible with chemical rockets. What you are thinking about is the specific impulse, in other words how long you can burn the engine before running out of fuel. Maintaining a low thrust for a long, long period of time can get you to places much faster due to efficiency.

Thanks

Great video...👍

really love this space bites fracer, keep it coming

Lord Fraser, I wish it will be there in 10 years, but you know how NASA is with delays, I sadly will probably be dead. Love your content brother

A thermal nuclear rocket does not have higher thrust, but higher specific impulse. This means the total deltaV achievable is higher.

The nuclear powered rocket sounds very exciting! That will be major, major breakthrough in space travel. The solar flare is scary! That will happen...someday. We do need ample warning.

Another great episode the only education here is what you do for us thank you for your time and manner of content

2:30 Whenever I see that NASA BNTR AG/MTV animation I always wonder how much mass is save by ejecting that tank when you include the mass of the extra bulk heads skeleton structure and ejection mechanism instead just a single structural fuel tank. I also wonder why it has more one engine. An acceleration that last one hour rather than three does almost nothing to your total flight time one NTR engine is plenty of thrust for interplanetary manoeuvres so that seems like more unnecessary mass.

Amazing! Science Fiction is becoming Science Fact in front of our eyes 👀

I would expect a docking station orbiting Mars would be required for this to work. The cargo would be delivered to the surface by a local shuttle system.

"That would suck." Starting the Understatement Olympics strong, I see...

15:28 Does anyone have any idea what effect that is? I couldnt find it on google

The problem with the analogy of the Sun / CMB is that we have a much better understanding of the light coming from the Sun than from the CMB. After all, if you mis-guess the level of CMB then your shadows will have more or less information in them.

This is awesome. Too bad it won't visit the methane seas though, that would really be something to feast your eyes on.

I'm skeptical that the rotors and their motors on the Titan Octocopter won't take on methane precipitation that freezes on contact (like cars in ice storms). Forming a granite rock solid shell around he entire vehicle. How could they prevent this?

I seriously hope that by the time Dragonfly is ready to fly there's different options around like expended Starship or electric sails or plasma magnet sails to shorten that travel time significantly so the science (and images) can be gotten sooner and the MMRTG can perform for longer on Titan rather than wasting precious energy in a 6 year long coast phase, this current paradigm relying on many multiple gravity assists to do all the work is so inefficient and wasteful and probably adds a lot to the cost because they have to ensure the spacecraft and probe can survive the long coast phase.

I wonder if a thermal nuclear rocket can be fabricated so as well the nuclear fuel is spent, it might provide a source of plutonium-238 to make it into radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG)? So handy on those long lunar nights or power beyond the orbit of Jupiter - or even in Martian dust storms!

Really cool stuff....don't want it to light-up the methane!

Wow, Mars in 45 days. That's incredible. Let's get this done.

A Nitpick: The launch window to Mars is not "When it's closest to us" - It's "When it will be closest to us when we get there." Not -quite- the same.

Great job! I follow your channel,and love your content! Keep up the good work!

I still can't believe they aren't going to visit the Methane lakes. Maybe during the extended mission...

I wish NASA or Space x , would do a setup like you are talking about. Only compact with only communication and video ability. Send it to próximos b at the fastest rate of speed we could get and have photos sent back to Earth! I know we are talking 4.5 light years,so that could take us20 years to get close enough with a powerful telescope to look for signs of life in the nearest solar system to us!

Can you not scale an Ion drive ship up to provide better acceleration? Just add more/bigger engines and more nuclear fuel/solar panels?

2:20 yea but if something goes wrong and it fails, we will have to wait for another 20-30 years until another Titan mission.

Hey Fraser, what's your take - is there much point in going to Titan and not going to the Methane lakes? Isn't that a bit like going to Saturn and not checking out the rings?

Voyager 1 and 2 used Radioisotope Heater Units (RHUs) as power supply old tech growing up

I had herd a few years back that type of battery was just about out of radioactive materials

I love how you identify your days passed by nice pleasant peaceful sleeps, instead of every terrifying agonizing day as everyone falls to their deaths around us and we sit waiting frightened patiently awaiting our turn. 😂

How is a helicopter able to operate on titan, when there isn’t any air?

If Kerbal has taught me something is that nuclear rockets is always the way to go. #GoingNuclear🚀

You say a month of no power would suck but...a month of no light pollution sounds darn tempting

3:38 that was the flaw in human history with nuclear, they were using nuclear🔋cell, to power a dinky 🏟 size mono halogen lamp 🔦 . As merely *storage* time. When ion/plasma could've been nuclear *amp thrust* booster. Offering less idle time, regen & a conservative gravity 0.5 to 1.5 gforce comfort in exponential accel.

Reminds me of Pivotal Universe on Amazon.

Shields up Scotty.

BNTRs are complicated. NTP is hard because the nuclear hydrothermodnamics and stresses are insane. Literally how fast you can heat one of the LEAST thermally opaque elements is the complete point. The higher the mass flow at the same or similar mass flow with an effective thermal profile is HARD. Your leverage in some zones in the reactor is hydrogen density based on your propellant flow for neutron moderation. That's important too, so let's look at that. The NEP issues are fundamentally different: the Carnot cycle's thermal differential requires something that can capture every calorie possible, regardless of mass. This is why lead is a reasonable option for small terrestrial reactors. Gas cooled reactors, usually He/Xe coolant, are the dream with gas generator (Brayton cycle) conversion systems have fundamentally different issues because the mass and neutron moderating effects of this gas (and the materials required to contain it) are COMPLETELY different. Then there's the whole power conversion thing, which has had billions dumped into it over the decades. Look into Prometheus. The power conversion system (Brayton, BTW) ate the budget. The whole trinary concept, where you basically strap an afterburner on, irradiated the whole vehicle due to backscatter from the plume. I run a website on nuclear propulsion (Beyond NERVA), and Winchell Chung has a lot of excellent articles about backscatter. This isn't NIMBY or nay sayer slop, this is "I want NTP and NEP to fly, but they don't fit together" talk.

Hi Fraser, although a long-time subscriber and fan of your channel and videos, I really must take issue with you. In the item "Solar Flashes and Flares" you refer (8:10) to the "Entire Eastern Seaboard . . . ." of where? Of China, or Africa, or perhaps Brazil. There is a well-known picture on the Web, of a Globe of the World, as seen by Hollywood, the U.S. media & TV, etc. It shows a wonderful water planet, with Alaska and the continental USA as the only land masses. I had honestly thought that you Fraser, as an educated journalist, would have realised that you had fans in these strange places, called "other countries" ! 😄 All the Best and a belated Happy New Year.

The big advantage of a nuclear thermal rockety is not high thrust, in fact the thrust to weight ratio sucks compared to conventional chemical rockets. That's why they would be no use in launch vehicles, apart from the radiological hazard. However, they can produce thrust levels comparable to chemical rockets in a useable package, which is probably what you were aiming for. The big advantage is in specific impulse, efficiency. Most NTR designs are around twice as efficient as a chemical rocket. Of course, ion propulsion is even more efficient, but it's thrust is pitiful. But if you can combine the two, I can see how you could get even higher efficiency with reasonable thust levels.

No words only results.

8:51 to 9:13 I wonder what a red dwarf would look like? Maybe 2x or 4x this speed?

Power out for a month? That's a rosey outcome. A Carrington event might take things down for years. The whole electric infrastructure industry depends on electricity