Nuclear-powered rockets will open up new reaches of the Solar System to mankind. A small step forward toward making them a reality came earlier this month. On Jan. 20, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced success in several significant high-impact tests to advance the development of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) reactor technology for rapid cislunar transportation and deep space missions, including human missions to Mars. Tests were conducted at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to verify that the nuclear fuel met the high-performance specifications required to withstand extreme conditions in space.
“The recent testing results represent a critical milestone in the successful demonstration of fuel design for NTP reactors,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. The nuclear fuel was tested with hot hydrogen flow through the samples and subjected to six thermal cycles that rapidly ramped up to a peak temperature of 2600 K (Kelvin) or 4220° Fahrenheit.”
According to Dr. Christina Back, GA-EMS VP of Nuclear Technologies and Materials: “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 3000 K, which would enable the NTP system to be two to three times more efficient than conventional chemical rocket engines.”
