> we lived on a planet where gravity and chemistry would make orbital rockets possible
It's kind of insane luck. Bit heavier planet and we wouldn't be able to have a single satellite before building nuclear engines.
It's kind of insane luck. Bit heavier planet and we wouldn't be able to have a single satellite before building nuclear engines.
A nuclear reactor is a bit like an ion drive: great for long distance space travel, but not great for getting off a planet.
Unless you mean the kind of nuclear engine that consists of detonating atomic bombs behind you? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...
Acceleration to 66 km/s is probably a little bit overkill, even.
What are you basing this on? NERVA was for getting off the planet. It had a thrust of ~250 kN. In comparison, a SpaceX Merlin engine has a thrust of ~900 kN, while ion drives have <1 N of thrust.
Additionally, atmospheric density and friction matter a lot in these situations, and getting out of high density atmosphere and ‘up’ as quickly as possible pays large dividends.