Project Pluto

Just when I'd thought I'd fished out the possibilities of Venus' atmosphere, I found a new one!

With current tech, the "Eternal" Flotilla can keep decent freight (like us monkeys) at 11 AM for about as long as the turbofan is supplied with fuel. Even lighter loads borne by propeller stay up only if the 'planes are assisted. (UPDATE 8/17: We might hope for floating chargers.) To spin that propeller to jet-like force I considered an enclosed nuclear habitat but last Sunday I realised that would be energy-inefficient - like to the point that other Venereans will simply find better use for their hard-won fuel.

But then I thought - hang on, aren't there things called 'ramjets' that SF authors were proposing elsewhere? To hell with fuel or any sort of expendable propellent - use the atmosphere! So how about a nuclear ramjet...

Turns out I am not the first. In the early 1960s the US proposed just such a monster: the Project Pluto. Being the '60s of course this was mooted for a wider project of bombing Russians. And then the US decided that ICBMs would do better at it. Since then in 2002 some idiot proposed this for Jupiter (pdf) not considering that planet's absurd radiation.

Over Venus, I haven't done the maths on how Project Pluto would work. I can report that it would set off on its months-long passage over the planet at Mach 3-6. Again, no maths, so I am not calculating Mach 1 at whatever airpressure of mostly-CO₂; let's say it's 315 ms^-1. I'm not considering scramjets. I'm even leaving aside how we power it. We just know it's faster than the 100 ms^-1 fanning the equatorial clouds. And we want Mach 4.

So this isn't the 11 AM perma'plane, either. Solar/battery was too slow; this one's too fast. And I expect not to be stuffing the innards of this thing with human life-support. But we can still find uses.

BACKDATE 1/29/20: I'd thought of the ramjet Tuesday but didn't get around to constraining it.

UPDATE 2/24/21: Molten-core Pluto should supply more heat. This, to run it higher and faster.