New Nuclear Rocket Idea May Slash Mars Journey Time in Half

Engineers from Ohio State College are growing a brand new strategy to energy rocket engines, utilizing liquid uranium for a quicker, extra environment friendly type of nuclear propulsion that would ship spherical journeys to Mars inside a single yr.

NASA and its non-public companions have their eyes set on the Moon and Mars, aiming to determine an everyday human presence on distant celestial our bodies. The way forward for area journey depends upon constructing rocket engines that may propel autos farther into area and do it quicker. Nuclear thermal propulsion is currently at the forefront of new engine technologies aiming to considerably scale back journey time whereas permitting for heavier payloads.

Touring quicker than earlier than

Nuclear propulsion makes use of a nuclear reactor to warmth a liquid propellant to extraordinarily excessive temperatures, turning it right into a gasoline that’s expelled by a nozzle and used to generate thrust. The newly developed engine idea, known as the centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket (CNTR), makes use of liquid uranium to warmth rocket propellant straight. In doing so, the engine guarantees extra effectivity than conventional chemical rockets, in addition to different nuclear propulsion engines, in line with new research revealed in Acta Astronautica.

If it proves profitable, CNTR might permit future autos to journey farther utilizing much less gas. Conventional chemical engines produce about 450 seconds of thrust from a given quantity of propellant, a measure referred to as particular impulse. Nuclear propulsion engines can attain round 900 seconds, with the CNTR probably pushing that quantity even larger.

“You could possibly have a protected one-way journey to Mars in six months, for instance, versus doing the identical mission in a yr,” Spencer Christian, a PhD pupil at Ohio State and chief of CNTR’s prototype building, mentioned in a statement. “Relying on how nicely it really works, the prototype CNTR engine is pushing us in the direction of the long run.”

CNTR guarantees quicker routes, nevertheless it might additionally use various kinds of propellant, like ammonia, methane, hydrazine, or propane, that may be present in asteroids or different objects in area.

The idea remains to be in its infancy, and some engineering challenges stay earlier than CNTR can fly missions to Mars. Engineers are working to make sure that startup, shutdown, and operation of the engine don’t trigger instabilities, whereas additionally discovering methods to reduce the lack of liquid uranium.

“We’ve got an excellent understanding of the physics of our design, however there are nonetheless technical challenges that we have to overcome,” Dean Wang, affiliate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State and senior member of the CNTR venture, mentioned in a press release. “We have to preserve area nuclear propulsion as a constant precedence sooner or later, in order that expertise can have time to mature.”