Page 165 - MY STORY

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At liquid hydrogen temperatures around -423 F titanium
almost doubled in strength compared to room
temperature and would have been, by far, the strongest,
and lowest weight, candidate for this structural

application.

We were working on alloy development and welding

methodologies for very thin-wall structure (on the order
of 0.025” thick) for 30-foot diameter tanks. There was a
lot of concern about safety if a malfunction caused the

nuclear propulsion system to come crashing to earth
spreading nuclear contaminants somewhere on earth. We

carefully derived disposable shielding that would have
ameliorated that concern. We had also elected not to use
nuclear propulsion for earth launch, just interplanetary
travel.. Challenging, but doable.

Cosmic, Space and Nuclear Radiation Human Protection

This was a tough one. We had to find a way to protect the
crew from cosmic as well as nuclear radiation from the
propulsion system. This was certainly one area we did

not have the necessary answers. How would we warn,
and then protect, the crew from solar or cosmic radiation
bursts that could be random in nature? Would we need to

build a small radiation proof “bunker” in the spacecraft?