planet shuttle

The requirements for shuttling to and from a planet's atmosphere and surface, must be met from the resources available to the GNSC Grand Nuclear Space Cruiser. And must satisfy the needs of its 3500 personnel. A typical shuttle-launch team or crew or passenger list may count upwards of ten persons, including two shuttle commanders.

Each GNSCruiser shall have three Shuttles capable of

• atmospheric entry and exit on Earth/Venus/Mars-like planets
• atmospheric cruising 10,000 hours on Earth/Venus/Mars-like planets
• acceleration to orbit velocity above moons and Earth-like planets
• freight-tugging, asteroid-tugging
• sustaining a crew of seven for a month of food, a year of air
• emergency space-rescues for [21] passenger-occupants
• conveying reactor-drive fission-fuels
• exercising minimal nuclear-authority plutonium 'weapons'
• docking with space university research laboratory stations
• full digital data and communications uplink and downlink

Additional design implementations shall include:
• 'sun-out' windows - by 50% random-spot-blacking the outer layer of a window/port, and photochromic-blacking the inner layer, the direct sun-beams may be blocked while retaining 25% of all other optical light.
• nuclear-powered: enclosed - to minimize fall-out, and maximize efficiency - see aerolifting.
• clean nuclear fuels, Beta-type: Ca-48 0.19%rel (2 β^- 89 keV/n), Zr-96 2.8%rel (2 β^- 35 keV/n), Ni-58 68%rel (2 EC 33 keV/n), Be-10 reactor-made (β^- 56 keV/n).
• boron-carbide 'BC' for minimum weight, [nonavalanching 'metal' conductivity], [rebonding], nitrogen/oxygen passivation,
• super-Wien radiant outer surfaces for cool hypersonic operation: heat drives the coating or glass-embedded electrochemistry to emit light rather than Wien radiant blackbody heat, thus cooling the surface more quickly. Electrochemistry allows for the absorption of IR "photons" climbing electron orbitals until a photon is emitted; the electrons need never reach ionization---the hot surface appears white but cool.