The idea of using nuclear power for spaceflight has been around for decades. Different designs have been proposed but not built. It looks as if technology has caught up reality and NASA is seriously considering the use of nuclear propulsion systems to power spacecraft.
BWX Technologies Nuclear Technology, Inc. (BWXT NE) is a U.S. company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It manufactures nuclear components and provides engineering, design, construction, inspection and repair services.
Last year, BEXT NE announced an eighteen million eight hundred thousand dollar that it had been granted an award under the Game Changing Development Program at NASA for work on a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system. This three-year grant will enable the company to manufacture and test prototype nuclear fuel elements.
BWXT NE will also assist NASA in figuring out how to address and resolve nuclear licensing and regulatory requirements. BWXT NE’s goal is to help NASA refine the feasibility of and affordability of the development of an NTP rocket engine. They will deliver the technical and programmatic data required to actually implement this new technology.
BTXT NE just held an event for officials from the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) of NASA yesterday. BWXT NE gave the NASA representatives updates and technology demonstrations of their nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) project to build a reactor that could be incorporated into a rocket engine to carry a crew to Mars and back.
Rex Geveden is the BWXT NE president and CEO He said, “We believe that NTP is an ideal propulsion system to take humans to Mars, and our scientists and engineers are working every day to make that a reality.”
James Reuter is the NASA acting administrator of STMD. He toured the BWXT NE Advanced Technology Lab in Lynchburg, Virginia to review progress on the new BWXT NE reactor. BWXT NE staff demonstrated three new technologies that they are working on for the project. The three areas of research are advanced welding, metallography and fuel element filling. Metallography is the study of the physical structure and components of metals, by using microscopy.
BWXT NE says that its compact reactor design which burns low-enriched uranium can be incorporated into a rocket engine which has significant advantages over current chemical-based rocket engines. NTPs have double the efficiency of the most powerful chemical rockets and much greater power density.
Sonny Mitchell is the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. He said "As we push out into the solar system, nuclear propulsion may offer the only truly viable technology option to extend human reach to the surface of Mars and to worlds beyond. We're excited to be working on technologies that could open up deep space for human exploration."
It is hoped that a NTP engine could cut the travel time to Mars from six months to just four months. This would result reducing the exposure of astronauts to dangerous radiation in space. It will also reduce the mass of the space vehicle which means that it can carry addition payloads of fuel and supplies.