Apparently before I was considering Venus the Soviets were considering Earth. (At least it was not a Pluto Ramjet.) Anyway in 2015 somebody blogged it but I missed it.
Shielding requirements can be lowered if we agree not to have humans on board. As for the fuel: I assume it was plutonium. We can drop that mass by using something with lower mass for criticality. Americium-242? Curium-247? ... antimatter . . .?
Still looks like a big blimp to nowhere. We haven't even mastered the blimp without nukes.
Although... how about a superstratospheric balloon?
The lifting gas can just be hydrogen over oxygen-starved 30 km, and we'd need less of it on account we might just heat its balloon with a black or gold-painted coating. There might be questions on - where is this thing travelling to. Less atmosphere; difficult to use propellers. But it's nuclear powered so maybe the propellers go real real fast.
Absolutely looks like something for Venus on account it's unlikely we'll want it for Earth (and antimatter is cheaper in space anyway).
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