NASA and DOE are now working with industry to develop updated nuclear thermal propulsion reactor designs. During this time, Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists helped successfully build and test a number of nuclear rockets that current NTP designs are based off of today.Īlthough the program ended in 1972, research continued to improve the basic design, materials and fuels used for NTP systems. Department of Energy) during the 1960s as part of the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application program. It was studied by NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission (now the U.S. NTP Systems Were Developed With Support From DOE NTP systems are not designed to produce the amount of thrust needed to leave the Earth's surface.ĥ. Instead, they’ll be launched into space by chemical rockets before they are turned on. This leads to greater efficiency and allows the rocket to travel farther on less fuel. When chemical rockets are burned, they produce water vapor, a much heavier byproduct than the hydrogen that is used in a NTP system. This is because lighter gases are easier to accelerate.
The specific impulse of a chemical rocket that combusts liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is 450 seconds, exactly half the propellant efficiency of the initial target for nuclear-powered rockets (900 seconds). NTP rockets are more energy dense than chemical rockets and twice as efficient.Įngineers measure this performance as specific impulse, which is the amount of thrust you can get from a specific amount of propellant. NTP Systems Are More Efficient Than Chemical Rockets This physical process heats up the propellant and converts it to a gas, which is expanded through a nozzle to produce thrust. Uranium atoms split apart inside the core and release heat through fission. NTP systems work by pumping a liquid propellant, most likely hydrogen, through a reactor core.
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