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posted by martyb on Tuesday June 16 2020, @01:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the hot-stuff dept.

The US military is getting serious about nuclear thermal propulsion:

[...] the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced its intent to have a flyable nuclear thermal propulsion system ready for a demonstration in 2025.

Through this Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO program, the defense agency seeks technology that will allow for more responsive control of spacecraft in Earth orbit, lunar orbit, and everywhere in between, giving the military greater operational freedom in these domains.

"Activity in cislunar space is expected to increase considerably in the coming years," Tabatha Thompson, a DARPA spokeswoman, told Ars. "An agile nuclear thermal propulsion vehicle enables the DOD to maintain Space Domain Awareness of the burgeoning activity within this vast volume."

In "Phase 1" of its solicitation, DARPA has asked industry for the designs of both a nuclear thermal reactor and an operational spacecraft upon which to demonstrate it. This initial phase of the program is to last 18 months. Subsequent phases will lead to detailed design, fabrication, ground tests, and an in-space demonstration. No contracts have yet been awarded, and award values will be determined by industry submissions.

The propulsion system is thought to make travel around the Solar System quicker.


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  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday June 17 2020, @04:07PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @04:07PM (#1009183)

    Unless I'm much mistaken, the fission products remain within the fuel rods, which are quite solid under normal operating conditions. They're not escaping unless the reactor has a meltdown, for which would get *lots* of warning as the temperature climbed.

    Really though, radioactive exhaust of all kinds is unlikely to be an issue since for the forseable future these are not designed to be used on Earth. Rockets sometimes fail, and a failed nuclear rocket would be a radioactive dirty bomb. You really don't want that flying overhead.

    And in space, it doesn't really matter much how radioactive the exhaust might be - the high exhaust velocity will disperse it far beyond Earth orbit, where the solar wind will have plenty of time to push it further outward before it has a chance to hit Earth on some far-future mutual orbit. You might want to be careful where exactly you aim the thing so you're not irradiating space stations and such, but really, space is so incredibly radioactive already that you'd almost need malicious intent to make things noticeably worse.

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