| Submit your comments on this article |
| Science & Technology |
| Blast From The Past: The Nuclear Powered Ramjet Project Pluto |
| 2007-03-30 |
| ...What they came up with was SLAM, for Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile. SLAM was to use a revolutionary new type of propulsion: nuclear ramjet power. The project to build the weapon's nuclear reactor was given the code name "Pluto," which also came to refer to the weapon itself. Pluto's namesake was Roman mythology's ruler of the underworld -- seemingly an apt inspiration for a locomotive-size missile that would travel at near-treetop level at three times the speed of sound, tossing out hydrogen bombs as it roared overhead. Pluto's designers calculated that its shock wave alone might kill people on the ground. Then there was the problem of fallout. In addition to gamma and neutron radiation from the unshielded reactor, Pluto's nuclear ramjet would spew fission fragments out in its exhaust as it flew by. (One enterprising weaponeer had a plan to turn an obvious peace-time liability into a wartime asset: he suggested flying the radioactive rocket back and forth over the Soviet Union after it had dropped its bombs...) More details and illustrations at link. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #13 Of course in the end they polluted themselves just as bad... (roll up your windows. do not stop. drive as fast as you can for the next 100 km) |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-03-30 23:33 |
| #12 Wholuck - blow me. The whole idea of this abominable thing flying back and forth above Russia spewing radiactives and turning the whole area into a wasteland amuses me somehow... |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-03-30 23:16 |
| #11 . . . and best of all, there's no carbon emissions, so it doesn't contribute to global warmering. |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-03-30 17:39 |
| #10 Who cares if the nuclear ramjet is unshielded? Tossing hydrogen bombs about enroute makes the issue moot. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-03-30 10:53 |
| #9 an excellent example of the collective "monkey" thought process, : technology will save us. |
| Posted by: Wholuck Henbane4439 2007-03-30 10:46 |
| #8 Even before it began dropping bombs on our enemies Pluto would have deafened, flattened, and irradiated our friends. Seems like a perfect weapon to use on Iran---flying over SA. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-03-30 09:50 |
| #7 Something else developed for Pluto was called "digital scene matching area correlation" (DSMAC). This was a navigation device that used the primitive digital technology of the time to compare the missile's own radar generated image of the terrain under its flightpath to stored computer maps of its course. An earlier version, Goodyear ATRAN (Automatic Terrain Recognition And Navigation), used a now quite arcane analog technology. It had actual microfilm maps, with a microscopically precise light sensor and all sorts of other gizmos, with nary a digit in sight. It had been deployed operationally in the AF's Mace cruise missile. The digital version was saved after Pluto's cancellation and developed further. It was the key technology that made the ALCM and Tomahawk precision cruise missiles possible before the advent of GPS. It is still used in many of these cruise missiles since nuclear war conditions could easily take GPS out of the picture (so to speak). DSMAC is also known as TERCOM (terrain comparison matching) or TERPROM (Terrain profile matching). |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2007-03-30 08:52 |
| #6 "can't make uranium out of something else." But you can make fissile Plutonium out of something else - non-fissile Uranium 238. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-03-30 07:28 |
| #5 Although Pluto never flew, the exotic materials developed for the nuclear ramjet find application today in ceramic turbines and space-based power reactors. And Coors beer. Funny how things work out. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-03-30 07:22 |
| #4 a locomotive-size missile that would travel at near-treetop level at three times the speed of sound, tossing out hydrogen bombs as it roared overhead. We're talking about a serious "Shock and Awe" factor here! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-03-30 05:33 |
| #3 but you can substitute Pu alloys or thorium for it under some conditions |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-03-30 01:54 |
| #2 The Peak Oil people are now on about Peak Uranium. Which BTW, I give more credence to, since unlike petrol, diesel etc, you can't make uranium out of something else. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-03-30 01:39 |
| #1 See also SPACEWAR > Uranium + vital NucMaterials shortages = lack of viable availabilities is hampering badly needed modernization of US nuclear power plants. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-03-30 00:25 |