NASA has outlined a nuclear thruster concept for Phase I development as part of its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for 2023. The Nuclear Thermal and Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NTP/NEP) concept is a new class of dual-mode nuclear propulsion systems that use a “wave rotor crest loop”, according to a NASA blog post.
The scientist behind the concept is Prof. Ryan Gosse believes this system can reduce the travel time to Mars to just 45 days. If the technology works as planned, it could drastically reduce travel times to Mars and make missions to the red planet much safer for humans.
Will nuclear propulsion be the force behind future space travel?
The new proposal, titled “Dual-Mode NTP/NEP with Wave Rotor Peak Loop”, is one of 14 proposals selected by NIAC for Phase I development. It was announced that he received a grant worth $12,500 to research and develop the required technology.
This new concept takes advantage of two key concepts behind nuclear propulsion. Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) uses a nuclear reactor to heat liquid hydrogen propellant. Liquid hydrogen turns into plasma and is ejected from the back of the rocket, providing thrust.
Meanwhile, Nuclear-Electric Propulsion (NEP) uses a nuclear reactor to electrically power a Hall-Effect thruster (ion engine). This creates an electromagnetic field that ionizes and accelerates an inert gas to create thrust.
Working as the Hypersonic Program Area Leader at the University of Florida, Gosse combines the advantages of both NTP and NEP with his new concept. The engineer proposes a two-mode design based on a solid-core NERVA reactor that will provide a specific impulse (lsp) of 900 seconds. This is a system that can produce twice the performance of current chemical rockets.
On top of that, Gosse proposes using a Wave Rotor (WR) to further compress the reaction mass using the pressure created by the reactor heating the liquid hydrogen fuel. According to the engineer, this has the potential to provide thrust levels of a NERVA-class NTP concept, but with a higher Isp of 1400-2000 seconds. Combining this with a NEP cycle will produce even higher levels of thrust.
Other concepts granted by NASA’s NIAC program include a hybrid aircraft concept called TitanAir that can collect samples from the seas of Saturn’s moon Titan. The space agency has published here a full list of impressive space concepts it sees as potential game changers for astronomy, earth science and manned space exploration.
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