Nuclear-powered rocket could get astronauts to Mars faster
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https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/03/world/nuclear-powered-rocket-scn-spc-intl/index.html
>By 2035, NASA wants to land humans on Mars. But reaching the red planet, on average around 140 million miles away, will be a mammoth feat.
>Colder than Antarctica and with little to no oxygen, Mars is a hostile environment. The longer it takes astronauts to get there and the longer they stay, the more they are at risk.
>That's why scientists are looking at ways to reduce trip time. Seattle-based company Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) has proposed a solution: a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) engine that could get humans from Earth to Mars in just three months. Currently, the shortest possible trip for an unmanned spacecraft is seven months, but a crewed mission is expected to take at least nine months.
>An NTP system uses a nuclear reactor to generate heat from a uranium fuel. That thermal energy heats a liquid propellant, usually liquid hydrogen, which expands into a gas and is shot out the back end, producing thrust.
>NTP rockets produce twice the thrust per unit of propellant than a chemical system -- which is like saying it does "double the miles per gallon," says Sheehy. This means the technology could get astronauts to Mars and back in less than two years.
>However, one of the main challenges for building an NTP engine is finding a uranium fuel that can withstand the blistering temperatures inside a nuclear thermal engine.
>USNC-Tech claims to have solved this problem by developing a fuel that can operate in temperatures up to 2,700 degrees Kelvin (4,400 degrees Fahrenheit). The fuel contains silicon carbide, a material used in tank armor, which forms a gas-tight barrier that prevents the escape of radioactive products from the nuclear reactor, protecting the astronauts.
>By 2035, NASA wants to land humans on Mars. But reaching the red planet, on average around 140 million miles away, will be a mammoth feat.
>Colder than Antarctica and with little to no oxygen, Mars is a hostile environment. The longer it takes astronauts to get there and the longer they stay, the more they are at risk.
>That's why scientists are looking at ways to reduce trip time. Seattle-based company Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) has proposed a solution: a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) engine that could get humans from Earth to Mars in just three months. Currently, the shortest possible trip for an unmanned spacecraft is seven months, but a crewed mission is expected to take at least nine months.
>An NTP system uses a nuclear reactor to generate heat from a uranium fuel. That thermal energy heats a liquid propellant, usually liquid hydrogen, which expands into a gas and is shot out the back end, producing thrust.
>NTP rockets produce twice the thrust per unit of propellant than a chemical system -- which is like saying it does "double the miles per gallon," says Sheehy. This means the technology could get astronauts to Mars and back in less than two years.
>However, one of the main challenges for building an NTP engine is finding a uranium fuel that can withstand the blistering temperatures inside a nuclear thermal engine.
>USNC-Tech claims to have solved this problem by developing a fuel that can operate in temperatures up to 2,700 degrees Kelvin (4,400 degrees Fahrenheit). The fuel contains silicon carbide, a material used in tank armor, which forms a gas-tight barrier that prevents the escape of radioactive products from the nuclear reactor, protecting the astronauts.
