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 ...
Nice.
ZZ Top is jealous.
How quick is ‘quick’?.................................
don’t forget your Grey Poupon
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.
I know how nuclear propulsion is used on board ships and subs, but I’m wondering how it would be used in spacecraft.
the anti-nuke cult will object because they dont want nuclear waste raining down on the planet in the case of a contingency.
The Jupiter 2 had a nuclear powered engine 😊
The hardest part about using a nuclear reactor for space travel is making it light enough to launch, yet robust enough to survive an unplanned 'launch event.'
In fact, it’s cold as hell
or was it ‘ice’
That was Foreigner
Right on cue!
I love reading about technology that small minds shut down 60 years ago.
What about 90 minutes from New York to Paris. I was told that by ‘76 we’d by A-OK.
In order to make the “nuclear rocket” concept work, the primary function of the small atomic reactor is to supply sufficient heat so whatever the propellant may be, it is expelled as a hot stream of gas, giving the thrust comparable to the burn of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen (or other rocket fuel), to lift heavy payloads from the ground and through space. As the atomic reactor heat unit is MUCH smaller than the size of the tanks that hold the liquid oxygen and liquid rocket fuel, and the propellant to be heated may something like simple water, the weight requirements are much lower, and an even greater payload is possible.
People are so accustomed to the idea of chemical rockets, the idea of using heat generated from a small nuclear reactor seems really novel.
But highly practical.
I know how nuclear propulsion is used on board ships and subs, but I’m wondering how it would be used in spacecraft.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Seems it’s got to eject mass in order to make thrust.
If only some brilliant British engineer could just figure out a way to harness nuclear power to power the electrical grid!
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