NASA to shelve nuclear propulsion project (NASA kills Prometheus)

Albany Times Union ^ | Wednesday, September 14, 2005 | ERIC ANDERSON

[Arkie2]

NISKAYUNA -- The plan to send a manned space mission to Mars apparently doomed research on nuclear propulsion being carried out at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. Advertisement

KAPL employees were told late last week that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was ending the $65 million program to develop a nuclear-electric propulsion system as it reorders its priorities.

The Prometheus project, as it is called, will undergo a "substantial reduction," KAPL officials said this week, in part so money can be spent on developing the Crew Exploration Vehicle that will be used to send humans back to the Moon and to Mars.

NASA and the division of the U.S. Department of Energy that oversees KAPL "have mutually agreed that NASA's reprioritization of work and reduction in funding for the Prometheus Program do not support continuation of the partnership for the development" of the nuclear-electric propulsion system, KAPL officials said in a written response to questions from the Times Union.

KAPL hired 150 engineers and other staff as it began research on the $65 million project in March 2004. Now, said Anne LaRoche, a KAPL spokeswoman, work will be brought to "an orderly conclusion."

She said it's not clear how many people might lose their jobs.

"KAPL is working on an appropriate approach, in keeping with corporate policy, for reducing overall staffing levels," LaRoche said.

NASA spokesman Michael Braukus said the work that already has been done will be stored in NASA's archives.

Niskayuna Town Supervisor Luke Smith said KAPL had alerted him that "NASA had changed their priorities."

KAPL's main focus has been researching and developing nuclear propulsion systems for naval vessels. The facility is operated by Lockheed Martin Corp. under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy and it has a $460 million budget, not including the NASA work.

Total employment at KAPL's plants in Niskayuna and in West Milton is 2,700, including 1,500 engineers.

[blowfish]

Although this theory is quite controversial (and rejected out of hand by those who are committed to evolutionary development theories), this type of work demonstrates that there is not necessarily a contradiction between a six day creation and modern science.

I don't see any mention of an apple or a snake in his theory. Or is he still working on that?

[zagabond]

That's the point. They hired all these people at KAPL on the promise of working on Prometheus. Now they're throwing them away. There is no "other" project at KAPL (for the new hires).

I know. One of the best graduate students I ever had took a job at KAPL to work on this. He told me people are already running scared. About all the help they're likely to get is directions to the unemployment office. Try standing in the unemployment line when your job description is reactor physicist. There aren't many takers.

Like I said, you don't hire reactor people to work on a CEV.

Yup. This may be the first time such layoffs occur in the Naval Reactors program. Not even during the downsizing following the peace dividend has something like this happened. Guess what NR's response will be the next time NASA asks for help.

[JasonC]

cept, no ion drive can manage anything remotely like 1/4G thrust. Nor can any rocket keep that sort of thing up. If an engine existed that did that easily and indefinitely, we wouldn't be talking about Mars, but the stars.