NASA Proposal to Revive Nuclear Thermal Space Propulsion Development

NASA Proposal to Revive Nuclear Thermal Space Propulsion Development

by noreply@blogger.com (brian wang)

Nuclear Thermal Rocket Propulsion for Future Human Exploration Missions (24 pages)

• Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) is a proven technology; 20 NTR / reactors designed, built and tested at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in the Rover / NERVA programs

• “All the requirements for a human mission to Mars were demonstrated” – thrust level, hydrogen exhaust temperature, max burn duration, total burn time at power, #restarts

• The smallest engine tested in the Rover program, the 25 klbf “Pewee” engine, is sufficient
for human Mars missions when used in a clustered engine arrangement – No major scale ups are required as with other advanced propulsion / power systems

• In less than 5 years, 4 different thrust engines tested (50, 75, 250, 25 klbf – in that order)
using a common fuel element design – Pewee was the highest performing engine

• “Common fuel element” approach used in the AISP / NCPS projects to design a small (~7.5 klbf), affordable engine for ground testing by 2020 followed by a flight technology
demonstration mission in 2023. PWR sees strong synergy between NTP and chemical

• SAFE (Subsurface Active Filtration of Exhaust) ground testing at NTS is baseline; capital cost for test HDW is ~45 M$ with ~ 2M$ for each additional engine test (NTS Dec. 2011)

• Cost for engine development and ground testing will not “break the bank” & the system will have broad application ranging from robotic to human exploration missions