A demonstration of a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) engine has not been conducted in over 50 years. Several tests were conducted during the NERVA program but no NTP engine was ever flown in space. In the last several years there has been a considerable amount of conceptual design work on NTP engines conducted. With the prospect of human Mars missions in the 2030’s there has been a renewed interest in NTP engines. A concept design study was conducted with the intent to design 2 flight demonstrator vehicles that would buy down programmatic and technical risks associated with launching and operating nuclear reactors in space. The intent of the first demonstrator mission would be to employ a simplified NTP engine and buy down programmatic risks whereas the second demonstrator would buy down technical risks with a NTP engine designed to be similar to an operational NTP model. The results of the study showed that a simplified NTP engine demonstrator could be feasibly built and flown in the near term with mostly high TRL, commercial off-the-shelf components.
Overview of the Main Propulsion System for a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Flight Demonstrator
Liquid Propulsion (LPS)
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2019
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Tampa, FL, United States
Programmatic and Industrial Base (PIB)
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2019
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Tampa, FL, United States
Spacecraft Propulsion (SPS)
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2019
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Tampa, FL, United States
Modeling & Simulation (MSS)
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2019
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Tampa, FL, United States
Joint Subcommittee Meeting
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2019
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Tampa, FL, United States
2019-12-09
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Propulsion Technology Demonstrator
NTRS | 2015
|Nuclear thermal propulsion workshop overview
NTRS | 1991
|Nuclear thermal propulsion program overview
NTRS | 1991
|