The US military has selected three companies to develop nuclear thermals Drive, or NTP systems to be tested in space by 2025. The aim is to test space technology in cislunar space – the area between the earth and the moon.
What is NTP?
The US Department of Energy describes how an NTP system works on its website. It requires a radioactive material like uranium and another element like hydrogen in liquid form. The liquid Propellant is pumped through a reactor Vein. This causes uranium atoms in the core to break apart and give off heat. The heat converts the propellant into gas, which expands through an opening to create thrust.
Scientists say that NTP motors have a far higher energy density and are twice as high efficient as rocket engines.
The orders to produce a flight demonstration of the NTP technology were awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the military. The winners were General Atomics, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin. DARPA did not disclose how much the contracts were worth.
In a recently announced project announcement, DARPA said the realm of space, or the “space domain”, will be of great concern to business, scientific discovery, and home defense. The establishment of an “awareness of space domains in cislunar space… requires a Leap– Pioneer in drive technology, ”said the agency.
The agency added that one of the most important capabilities of modern military operations is enabling the armed forces to respond quickly to threats on land, sea and in the air. However, doing this in space is difficult because current spacecraft designs lack the required speed and propulsive power.
This NASA illustration shows a Mars transit habitat and nuclear propulsion system that could one day bring astronauts to Mars. (Photo credit: NASA)
The project is known as the Demonstration Missile for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO. The aim is for a rocket to successfully demonstrate a functioning NTP system over earth orbit by 2025. The companies will work to develop and demonstrate reactor, propulsion and spacecraft systems.
Air Force Major Nathan Greiner is the program manager for DRACO. “The NTP technology that we intend to develop and demonstrate under the DRACO program is intended to provide a foundation for future space operations,” he said in a statement.
DARPA said the first part of the demonstration process will be done in two parts, or “lanes”. This process takes 18 months.
The first track will create a design for an NTP reactor and propulsion system. The second will produce an “operating system spaceship” conceptFor demonstration purposes. The early development process will focus on “risk mitigation” efforts on the way to “demonstration in orbit” by 2025, DARPA said.
NTP and NASA
The US space agency NASA has long been interested in nuclear propulsion systems to propel its future spacecraft. However, the technology has not yet been demonstrated.
NASA has said that for the past several years, their engineers have considered NTP technology to aid the future Missions to the moon and mars. NASA is also considering a related technology, nuclear electrics. This system uses propellants much more efficiently than chemical missiles, but provides much less thrust compared to NTP.
According to its own information, NASA is working with the Department of Energy on the design and development efforts.
NASA said in a February statement that its primary goal with nuclear propulsion would be to significantly reduce the time it takes crews to travel between Earth and Mars. With chemical propulsion, the trip to Mars would take about seven months. With an NTP system, however, this can take three to four months. This would allow more travel while also improving safety for astronauts in future space travel, NASA officials said.
I am Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from DARPA and NASA. Mario Ritter Jr. was the editor.
Quiz – US military seeks nuclear flight test by 2025
Start the quiz to find out
____________________________________________
Words in this story
drive – n. a force that moves something forward
Propellant – n. an explosive substance in fuel that causes something to move forward
thrust – n. push up or force
Vein – n. the basic and most important part of something
efficient – adj. able to achieve the results you want without wasting time and energy
Leap – adj. a big change, increase, or improvement
concept – n. an idea of what something is or how it works
mission – n. the flight of a spacecraft to perform a task or job
Comments are closed.