New nuclear fuel withstands 4,220°F heat, will fly rockets to Mars in just 45 days
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) just hit a massive milestone that could alter the future of space exploration.
The company has successfully trialed a nuclear fuel that could one day drastically cut down the travel time to Mars and beyond. The tests showed the fuel can withstand the harsh conditions of a nuclear thermal propulsion reactor.
In other words, it has the capability to one day power a nuclear rocket that could fire humans into deep space at unprecedented speeds. NASA and other organizations have long looked at nuclear propulsion as a faster space travel alternative.
Estimates suggest the method could fly a spacecraft to Mars in approximately a month, massively cutting down travel times when compared with conventional rocket systems.
General Atomic’s new nuclear fuel
Today, rockets heavily rely on chemical propulsion. Deep space probes like Voyager 1 and 2, meanwhile, have used ion propulsion to reach further than any human-made spacecraft.
While chemical propulsion sent the first satellite into space and took the first humans to the Moon, it has reached the theoretical limits of its capabilities. Larger rockets can go faster and carry more payload, but they are constrained by the mass of the fuel required to power them. They are also simply too slow for deep space travel.
According to NASA’s estimates, spacecraft using existing chemical rocket engines will take a minimum of six to seven months to reach Mars. Going faster would require a new propulsion method.
The best candidate is the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) system, a type of nuclear rocket. According to GA-EMS president Scott Forney, the company’s latest nuclear fuel tests show that their fuel can survive without being eroded or degraded by a thermal propulsion reactor when it’s at operational temperatures.
During the tests, the fuel was subjected to the maximum heat of a reactor for 20 minutes. That’s 4,220 degree Fahrenheit (2,326°C), roughly equivalent to the heat a nuclear rocket engine would reach during a boost maneuver. The tests, carried out at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, were deemed a success.
Is nuclear propulsion the future of space travel?
NTP was first theorized in the 1940s. Instead of burning chemical propellant, a rocket would use a nuclear reactor to heat propellant – most likely hydrogen. The thermal energy generated by nuclear fission in that reactor would be harnessed for propulsion.
Recently, NASA and DARPA awarded Lockheed Martin a $499 million contract to build the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). Estimates suggest this technology could enable a rocket to reach Mars in just 45 days. In other words, it would take roughly a fifth of the time required for conventional rockets.
An artist’s impression of the DRACO spacecraft in orbit. Source: NASA
Now, GA-EMS claims that it finally has the first fuel capable of withstanding the conditions required to reach Mars, and beyond, in such a short period of time.
“To the best of our knowledge, we are the first company to use the compact fuel element environmental test (CFEET) facility at NASA MSFC to successfully test and demonstrate the survivability of fuel after thermal cycling in hydrogen representative temperatures and ramp rates,” Dr. Christina Back, vice president of GA-EMS Nuclear Technologies and Materials, explained in a press statement.
“We’ve also conducted tests in a non-hydrogen environment at our GA-EMS laboratory, which confirmed the fuel performed exceptionally well at temperatures up to 3,000 K (4,940 °F, 2,726 °C), which would enable the NTP system to be two-to-three times more efficient than conventional chemical rocket engines,” she continued. “We are excited to continue our collaboration with NASA as we mature and test the fuel to meet the performance requirements for future cislunar and Mars mission architectures.”
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