Solid-core reactor has reached prototype engine demonstration after decade of development; review describes major characteristics of solid-core nuclear rocket engines, to indicate their state of development and probable application, and to discuss variety of advanced concepts for high-thrust propulsion systems; hydrogen which has molecular weight one-fourth that of chemical-propellant exhaust products enables exhaust to be doubled, and payload, which depends exponentially upon exhaust velocity, can be increased manyfold; payload advantage becomes more significant as mission energy requirements are increased, because nuclear-propelled vehicles require less gross weight and fewer stages than equivalent chemical rockets. (19139)
Nuclear propulsion for space vehicles
Annu Rev Nucl Sci
1968
26 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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Space maintenance of nuclear rocket propulsion vehicles
Engineering Index Backfile | 1963
|TIBKAT | 1965
|NTIS | 2021
|NTRS
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