An historical perspective of the NERVA nuclear rocket engine technology program

Robbins, W. H.; Finger, H. B.

doi:10.2514/6.1991-3451

Cited by 61 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…As mentioned earlier, Nuclear Thermal (NT) rocket technology [29][30][31] increases the exhaust velocity from a limit of *4.5 km/s for chemical rockets to *8.5 km/s, which is still far below what we need for the comet intercept mission. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) built more than a dozen such nuclear thermal rocket engines from 1955 to 1972, with Project Rover.…”

Section: Nuclear Rocket Enginesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A New Vision for Fusion Energy Research: Fusion Rocket Engines for Planetary Defense

et al. 2015

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We argue that it is essential for the fusion energy program to identify an imagination-capturing critical mission by developing a unique product which could command the marketplace. We lay out the logic that this product is a fusion rocket engine, to enable a rapid response capable of deflecting an incoming comet, to prevent its impact on the planet Earth, in defense of our population, infrastructure, and civilization. As a side benefit, deep space solar system exploration, with greater speed and orders-of-magnitude greater payload mass would also be possible.The US Department of Energy's magnetic fusion research program, based in its Office of Science, focuses on plasma and fusion science [1] to support the long term goal of environmentally friendly, socially acceptable, and economically viable electricity production from fusion reactors [2]. For several decades the US magnetic fusion program has had to deal with a lack of urgency towards and inconsistent funding for this ambitious goal. In many American circles, fusion isn't even at the table [3] when it comes to discussing future energy production. Is there another, more urgent, unique, and even more important application for fusion? Fusion's Unique ApplicationAs an on-board power source and thruster for fast propulsion in space [4], a fusion reactor would provide unparalleled performance (high specific impulse and high specific power) for a spacecraft. To begin this discussion, we need some rocket terminology. Specific impulse is defined as I sp ¼ v e =g, where g is the usual Earth's gravitational acceleration constant and v e is the rocket propellant's exhaust velocity. The rocket equation, M f /M o = exp (-DV/v e ), allows us to relate the final mass M f of the rocket divided by its initial mass M o , to the change in velocity DV that it is capable of achieving. The rocket requires a power source with an output power P = aM s , where we define a to be the specific power (W/kg), and M s as the mass of the power supply (including the power conditioning, structures, and any waste heat radiators).Today's best chemical rockets produce propellant exhaust velocities (v e ) up to 4.5 km/s. Fission (nuclear thermal) rocket engines [5] could roughly double that, to about 8.5 km/s (\ eV/amu temperature equivalent), constrained by material limits [6]. Electrically driven thrusters [7] are already quite efficient and have higher propellant exhaust velocities (corresponding to *5 eV/ amu) but are usually limited in power resulting in low thrust, and are driven by limited electrical power/energy sources (photovoltaic or radioisotope). Development of high power, high thrust plasma thrusters has not been a

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Section: Nuclear Rocket Enginesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aerojet and Westinghouse made a final design, of a J2 (third-stage Saturn V) engine replacement (Fig. 4), called NERVA [31], with about a factor of two higher specific impulse, I sp = 900 s, than the conventional chemical rocket engine it would replace.…”

Section: Nuclear Rocket Enginesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Vision for Fusion Energy Research: Fusion Rocket Engines for Planetary Defense

et al. 2015

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“…The NRX/EST test combined a reactor test with an engine system demononstration. 12,3 Two critical components, the turbopump and nozzle, were included although in a different layout than would be used for a flight engine. The second and final engine test 12 was the Ground Experimental Engine, the XE or XE-Prime.…”

Section: Reactor Designs Using Graphite Based Fuelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Reactor Designs Suitable for Direct Nuclear Thermal Propulsion: Interim Report

Schnitzler¹

2012

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“…In 1963, the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA) 9 began with Aerojet as the prime contractor and Los Alamos as a supporting contributor. The goal of the NERVA program was to transform the nuclear reactor technology developed by Los Alamos and produce a space qualified nuclear engine.…”

Section: History Of Nuclear Thermal Propulsionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ground Testing a Nuclear Thermal Rocket: Design of a Sub-scale Demonstration Experiment

Bedsun¹,

Lee²,

Townsend³

et al. 2012

48th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

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In 2008, the NASA Mars Architecture Team found that the Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR) was the preferred propulsion system out of all the combinations of chemical propulsion, solar electric, nuclear electric, aerobrake, and NTR studied. Recently, the National Research Council committee reviewing the NASA Technology Roadmaps recommended the NTR as one of the top 16 technologies that should be pursued by NASA. One of the main issues with developing a NTR for future missions is the ability to economically test the full system on the ground. In the late 1990s, the Sub-surface Active Filtering of Exhaust (SAFE) concept was first proposed by Howe as a method to test NTRs at full power and full duration. The concept relied on firing the NTR into one of the test holes at the Nevada Test Site which had been constructed to test nuclear weapons. In 2011, the cost of testing a NTR and the cost of performing a proof of concept experiment were evaluated.

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An historical perspective of the NERVA nuclear rocket engine technology program

Cited by 61 publications

References 0 publications

A New Vision for Fusion Energy Research: Fusion Rocket Engines for Planetary Defense

A New Vision for Fusion Energy Research: Fusion Rocket Engines for Planetary Defense

Small Reactor Designs Suitable for Direct Nuclear Thermal Propulsion: Interim Report

Ground Testing a Nuclear Thermal Rocket: Design of a Sub-scale Demonstration Experiment

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