how rocket can launched wiht nuclear energy
Jun 1, 2024
Space nuclear propulsion is a technology that draws energy from fission instead of traditional chemical reactions, thus providing virtually unlimited energy density and opening the door for crewed missions to Mars and deep space science. NASA is looking at two types of nuclear propulsion systems – thermal and electric.
Nuclear thermal propulsion provides high thrust and twice the propellant efficiency of chemical rockets. The system works by transferring heat from the reactor to a liquid propellant. That heat converts the liquid into a gas, which expands through a nozzle to provide thrust and propel a spacecraft.
Nuclear electric propulsion systems use propellants much more efficiently than chemical rockets but provide a low amount of thrust. They use a reactor to generate electricity that positively charges gas propellants and pushes the ions out through a thruster, which drives the spacecraft forward.
- Nuclear thermal propulsion has been on NASA’s radar for more than 60 years.
- Nuclear thermal propulsion could be an enabling technology for future crewed missions to Mars, largely due to its performance advantages over conventional chemical propulsion systems. Under NASA’s current Moon to Mars exploration approach, human exploration of Mars is targeted for as early as the 2030s.
- Nuclear thermal propulsion could allow for more flexible abort scenarios, allowing crew to return to Earth at multiple times, if needed, including immediately upon arrival at Mars.
- Materials inside the fission reactor must be able to survive temperatures above 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
- To keep the round-trip crewed mission duration to about two years, NASA is looking at nuclear-enabled transportation systems to facilitate the shorter-stay class of missions, taking advantage of optimal planetary alignment for a low-energy transit for one leg of the trip, and using the new technology to make the higher-energy transit for the other leg.