Re: Agenda physics in Wikipedia? - nuclear fission efficiency of 0.1%

In sci.physics Dave <dwickford@yahoo.com> wrote:

Reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon_rocket,
an onboard nuclear engine doesn't look good,
despite me thinking it is the best option to
get a rover to an exoplanet.
 
Then I looked into why, and the gamma efficiency
is given as 0.1% for fission,
this seem like 100 times too low,
resulting in a maximum quoted speed of 60km/s.
 
There are other options also, like having an
open gamma ray source. This has the advantage of
no moving parts, just don't look into the beam.
 
Posted to uk.politics.mics, because likely the
information will be assessed differently,
and a general don't believe everything you can read
or take everything at face value.
 
I can be corrected, but 0.1% is very very low
for any generator.

For an in depth look at nuclear rockets of all kinds as well as things
like energy weapons, space war, ship designs, etc.,  both real and
sci fi, see:

https://projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/torchships.php

Crackpots beware, contains mathematics.