A nuclear thermal rocket engine under development could one day transport humans to Mars.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the US Department of Defense, and NASA are eyeing a type of rocket engine that could be the holy grail for bringing humans to the red planet. quickly and safely. The first tests could occur as early as 2027, according to a Tuesday press release from the space agency.
“DARPA and NASA have a long history of fruitful collaboration in advancing technologies for our respective goals, from the Saturn V rocket that first took humans to the Moon to robotic servicing and refueling of satellites. said DARPA Director Dr. Stefanie Tompkins. in a sentence. “Space dominance is critical to modern commerce, scientific discovery, and national security.”
The US military and NASA sought to develop this type of technology in the mid-20th century, but the program stalled. Now, the initiative is gaining new traction in the modern era as the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program.
Research on nuclear thermal rocket engines by NASA began in 1959. A key program in the 1960s, called the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, even sought to demonstrate the technology in space, but that never came to fruition. finished.
“However, NERVA’s funding dwindled in the late 1960s, and the program was canceled in 1973 before flight tests of the engine were conducted,” according to the space agency’s website.
These days, NASA has renewed its interest in sending humans to the red planet. The space agency’s Artemis program, which had its first uncrewed test flight to the moon last year, directs the space agency to return humans to the lunar surface as a stepping stone to finally putting the first humans on Mars. .
“Recent advances in aerospace engineering and materials are ushering in a new era for space nuclear technology, and this flight demonstration will be a major achievement in establishing space transportation capability for an Earth-Moon economy,” said Jim Reuter, Associate Administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission. address, he said in a statement.
Powerful nuclear heat engines
As the name implies, nuclear heat engines would be based on a nuclear reactor, using a process called atomic fission, in which a neutron crashes into an atom to tear it apart, causing a powerful chain reaction, to heat the propellant and provide the push. needed to propel a rocket through space. (The nuclear fission process is best known in the public consciousness for its role in energy production, and NASA previously signed an agreement with the US Department of Energy to investigate its applications for space travel.)
That process, according to NASA, is three or more times more efficient than the chemical propulsion used by rockets currently in operation, in which an explosive fuel is mixed with an oxidizer to create a fiery flare of thrust. The more efficient nuclear process, NASA said, could allow spacecraft to traverse the average 140 million mile (225 million kilometer) distance between Earth and Mars much faster than is possible today, reducing by greatly the amount of time that astronauts are exposed to. dangerous levels of radiation on future deep space missions.
Under the agreement with DARPA, which is perhaps best known for its role in laying the groundwork for the Internet, NASA will lead the technological development of the new engine. DARPA will design an experimental spacecraft and lead the overall program, according to the contract.
The CNN Wire
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