Posted on 02/07/2023 8:28:50 AM PST by BenLurkin
Rolls-Royce Holdings is getting into the spaceflight industry. The British aerospace engineering company says it’s developing a micro-nuclear reactor that the company hopes could be a source of fuel for long trips to the Moon and Mars.
Rolls-Royce Holdings announced in 2021 its intent to develop nuclear reactor technology, having obtained $600 million in public and private funding to develop its business. Since the nuclear reactor won’t have to carry as much fuel as a chemical propulsion rocket, the entire system will be lighter allowing for faster travel or increased payloads. The company says that the reactor could serve as both a new form of propulsion and a power source for bases on the Moon or Mars, and Rolls-Royce claims that they will have a nuclear reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029.
Rolls-Royce is not the only party working on rocket propulsion outside of traditional chemical fuel. NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced a collaboration to develop a thermal rocket engine that could improve the time it takes to get to deep space. Likewise, NASA had a successful test of a rotating detonation rocket engine, which uses less fuel and provides more thrust than current propulsion systems.
While this is the company’s first public effort at space-based nuclear reactors, it has been supplying submarines with small reactors since the 1960s.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
The New Horizons vehicle that went to Pluto uses (unironically) a plutonium power source for electricity but not for propulsion.
Are there “people who annoy you” on Mars?
It’s ion drive. There are U.S. companies that have been making them for years. They have higher specific impulse (change in momentum per kilogram of fuel) than chemical rockets, but not enough peak thrust to escape the surly bonds of earth.
And I just happen to be reading Stranger in a Strange Land as we speak!
I know steam turbines make props move on board ships, I’m just having trouble understanding the mechanics of rocket propulsion via nuclear reactor.
The USA built one in the 60’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDNX65d-FBY
The key was building a reactor that used ceramics instead of water cooling/moderator.
The plan was to replace the Apollo Service Module with Nerva engine and then fly it to Mars.
Well, there’s always Project Orion.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Once again it’s between the US and Brittan as to which engine will be best suited for travel, like in the P-51 Mustang, Allison vs Merlin rolls 61. Just a thought.
Can’t Quick Trip just continue to operate off the grid?
They are used to raise a high voltage, which is then used to accelerate an ionized gas out the thrust nozzle. Heating a gas would also provide for a fast moving reaction mass.
So did most deep space probes like V'ger (Voyager. Sorry, Star Trek reference there.)
Those nuclear batteries were much smaller than what would be necessary for a crewed spacecraft's Ion drive.
I was just reading Wikipedia’s article about them. It would be great to see a successful design actually working on a rocket. It seems like there are a lot of designs, but even a successful one will still have to deal with government bureaucracy and environmentalists.
I hope Elon Musk will get to launch Starship soon.
We’ve already sent rockets to the moon and Mars (and in fact, out of the solar system as well), so I hardly see the point.
It’s the old action reaction concept. Instead of the reactor boiling water in the steam generator to turn a turbine, the reactor is used to heat a gas and expel it through a nozzle. The gas at a given temperature and pressure is heated by passing through or near the core which increases it temperature and pressure. When it is released through the nozzle, it creates thrust from the velocity of its molecules being released.
Looks like you got enough explanations to sink the Bismark. ;-D
Here's a video from Marcus (out of Australia, Tasmania) who follows Space X and other launches on a weekly basis. I watch on YouTube to see what Musk is doing in Boca Chica, Texas and the cape. This is one of his specialty videos about nuclear space propulsion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLD4DpuGWUA.
Hi.
I don’t have the cajones to be strapped into a capsule sitting on top of six tons of hydrazine and liquid oxygen and let someone light a match.
Maybe if they can figure out nuclear propulsion, I’ll go.
5.56mm
All this science, I don’t understand.
Get a book. ;-D
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