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Title: A New Nuclear Rocket Concept Could Slash Mars Travel Time in Half

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/15/0...

"Engineers from Ohio State University are developing a new way to power
rocket engines," reports Gizmodo, "using liquid uranium for a faster, more
efficient form of nuclear propulsion that could deliver round trips to Mars
within a single year..." Nuclear propulsion uses a nuclear reactor to heat a
liquid propellant to extremely high temperatures, turning it into a gas
that's expelled through a nozzle and used to generate thrust. The newly
developed engine concept, called the centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket
(CNTR), uses liquid uranium to heat rocket propellant directly. In doing so,
the engine promises more efficiency than traditional chemical rockets, as
well as other nuclear propulsion engines, according to new research published
in Acta Astronautica... Traditional chemical engines produce about 450
seconds of thrust from a given amount of propellant, a measure known as
specific impulse. Nuclear propulsion engines can reach around 900 seconds,
with the CNTR possibly pushing that number even higher. "You could have a
safe one-way trip to Mars in six months, for example, as opposed to doing the
same mission in a year," Spencer Christian, a PhD student at Ohio State and
leader of CNTR's prototype construction, said in a statement. CNTR promises
faster routes, but it could also use different types of propellant, like
ammonia, methane, hydrazine, or propane, that can be found in asteroids or
other objects in space. "Some potential hurdles include ensuring that the
methods used for startup, operation and shutdown avoid instabilities,"
according to the researchers' announcement, as well as "envisioning ways to
minimize the loss of uranium fuel and accommodate potential engine failures."
But "This team's CNTR concept is expected to reach design readiness within
the next five years..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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