Video Transcript
The idea of using nuclear power for space travel is one the United States has been kicking around since just after World War II. But a new development agreement between NASA, DARPA, and Lockheed Martin shows potential for making it work and enabling space travel that’s faster and more efficient.
Back in the late ’50s and early ’60s, NASA worked with the Atomic Energy Commission on NERVA, or Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications. While that work certainly informed the advancements in nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) being made today, it may have been limited by the available fuels. Now, however, Lockheed Martin and DARPA appear to have cracked the code.
The NTP that Lockheed is developing will incorporate a fission-based reactor that uses high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. Existing reactors use fuel that’s enriched up to 5% with uranium-235, but HALEU is enriched between 5% and 20%. In space travel, HALEU would turn cryogenic hydrogen into super-hot pressurized gas. That gas would then be sent through the engine nozzle to provide thrust.
If using a powerful nuclear reaction to launch a rocket doesn’t sound entirely safe, it’s cool. Lockheed Martin assured that the NTP would not be turned on until a spacecraft has reached a nuclear-safe orbit, which is above 700 miles in altitude. To go atomic, Lockheed is partnering with BWX Technologies, which said it would build the reactor and manufacture the fuel at its Lynchburg, Virginia, facilities.
If the partners are successful, the project could produce a propulsion system that provides just as much thrust as conventional chemical propulsion systems but two to five times more efficiently. Lockheed said this could better enable travel between Earth and the Moon and, eventually, take people to Mars. The company plans to perform the first in-space flight demonstration of its nuclear thermal propulsion system by 2027.
