This text initially appeared on Universe Immediately.
Attending to Mars takes a extremely very long time, about 9 months utilizing at this time’s rocket know-how. It’s because common rocket engines burn gas and oxygen collectively (like a automotive engine), however they’re not very environment friendly. The basic downside is that spacecraft should carry each gas and oxidizer since there’s no air in area to help combustion. This creates a vicious circle: The extra gas you carry to go sooner, the heavier your spacecraft turns into, requiring much more gas to speed up that further weight. To go sooner, you’d want large quantities of gas, making the rockets extremely costly and heavy. Present chemical propulsion techniques are nearly at their theoretical limits, with little room for enchancment in effectivity.
While NASA funding has been slashed by the Trump administration with no allocation for nuclear thermal propulsion and/or nuclear electrical propulsion, scientists on the European Area Company (ESA) have been learning nuclear propulsion. Right here’s the way it works: As a substitute of burning gas with oxygen, a nuclear reactor heats up a propellant like hydrogen. The super-heated propellant then shoots out of the rocket nozzle, pushing the spacecraft ahead. This technique is rather more environment friendly than chemical rockets.
Revisiting Nuclear Rockets for Mars
Nuclear rockets provide a number of key benefits, reminiscent of slicing Mars journey occasions in half—from 9 months to about 4 to five months. The effectivity features come from the truth that nuclear reactors produce much more vitality per unit of gas than chemical reactions. Surprisingly, astronauts would truly obtain much less dangerous radiation on shorter journeys, although the engine itself produces radiation. This occurs as a result of area vacationers are continually bombarded by cosmic radiation throughout their journey, and slicing journey time in half considerably reduces their whole publicity. These engines work finest for giant spacecraft that want to hurry up and decelerate dramatically, excellent for Moon and Mars missions the place fast velocity modifications of a minimum of 25,000 km/h are required.
The examine, referred to as “Alumni,” prioritized security by cautious design. The nuclear reactor solely activates when the spacecraft is way from Earth in a secure orbit. Earlier than activation, the uranium gas has very low radioactivity and isn’t poisonous. A number of radiation shields defend the crew through the brief engine burns that final lower than 2 hours. The reactor is designed by no means to return to Earth’s ambiance. The analysis group spent over a 12 months analyzing this know-how and concluded it’s possible for long-term improvement. Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless important work forward, together with laboratory testing of the brand new ceramic-metal reactor design, constructing secure testing services, and fixing technical challenges like gas sourcing and reactor restart techniques.
Nuclear thermal propulsion may revolutionize area journey, making missions to Mars and the Moon sooner and extra sensible. Whereas the know-how is promising and seems secure, it would take a few years of improvement earlier than we see nuclear-powered spacecraft heading to the Purple Planet. It’s nice to see Europe demonstrating that it has the experience to develop this know-how, doubtlessly ushering in a brand new period of area exploration the place distant worlds develop into extra accessible than ever earlier than
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