NASA Study Summary: RIFT nuclear Saturn stage 1961

[luke strawwalker]

Here's another fairly short study but has a lot of good information, and would make a NEAT future/fantasy scale vehicle-- The RIFT (Reactor In-Flight Testing) vehicle. Two variants were proposed that would lead to a flight-certified nuclear stage-- a two stage variant lifted by a Saturn I first stage, and a three stage variant that would have been lofted by a Saturn I first stage coupled with a "then-notional" S-II second stage 260 inches in diameter powered by four J-2 engines, topped by the RIFT nuclear third stage. The vehicle in this report was capable of launching over 40,000 pounds to the moon-- similar to Saturn V.

Here's the study-- relevant pics to follow...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Ok... the first pic is a diagram showing the two different configurations... the three stage variant and the two stage variant.

The second pic is a dimensioned drawing of the two-stage variant.

The third pic is a two stage variant with the components labeled.

The fourth pic is the three stage variant with the components labeled.

The fifth pic is a dimensioned drawing of the three stage variant.

More to come... OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Ok, here's the last two pics from the study...

The first is the nuclear RIFT stage in the two-stage variant-- the stage was shortened for less propellant capacity since the S-I stage was limited in the weight it could lift. Note the lower propellant capacity and lift capability listed in the second summary chart...

The second pic is the nuclear RIFT stage in the three-stage configuration, with a full propellant load of 90,000 pounds. This variant would have required the notional S-II stage that was to be 260 inches in diameter and powered by four J-2 engine, as referenced in prior study summaries... The performance of this variant was about on-par with a Saturn V...

Note the thrust structure of the upper stages was different from the S-IVB stage-- the S-IVB used a conical ribbed frustrum for it's thrust structure to tie the J-2 engine to the LOX propellant tank-- the RIFT stage used an open-frame aluminum tube thrust structure to connect the nuclear RIFT engine to the stage, with the propellant tank, pressurization system, turbopump (powered by bleed gas from the reactor chamber) and verniers (also powered by bleed gas) located on/around this thrust structure...

These would be neat builds to see... OL JR

[rstaff3]

Thanks for posting these summaries! Very interesting and quicker than wading through the source docs!

[luke strawwalker]

You're welcome... hehehe... you got that right! At least this one was only 130 pages...

It's actually not too bad once you figure out how to speed read them... most of the stuff in the summaries is from the introduction, with some relevant data from the vehicle descriptions or methodology and tradeoffs and factors affecting them (like why certain versions were eliminated from further study early on, or factors that heavily favor certain versions instead of others-- some of which is counterintuitive!) and then bits and pieces from the individual component or mission mode sections, and then some pretty good stuff is in the conclusions... Most of the stuff in the middle is equations, graphs, charts, and stuff that really isn't germaine to modeling the subject, specifically stuff like range communications, vehicle guidance and control algorithms and moments and equipment, staging apparatuses, engine cooling and propellant flow characteristics, thermionics, dynamics, harmonics, acoustics, integration and stacking facilities concerns, transport of components, deep space operations, etc...

I originally glossed over most of the written stuff and simply did screen caps of the relevant diagrams and stuff that would be of use for modeling the vehicles, but I found in actually reading some of the studies that there's a lot of good information in there that, when rooted out and summarized into "Cliff's notes" of the proposals, actually shed a lot of light on what and why certain things were done and why certain things that looked good "on paper" didn't make it into the next phase of the study... hehehe... maybe I should call them "Jeff's Notes" LOL:)

More to come in a few days... :) OL JR :)