The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has established a requirement for Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) technology for robotic planetary science mission applications with potential future evolution to systems for piloted Mars vehicles. To advance the readiness of NEP for these challenging missions, a near-term flight demonstration on a meaningful robotic science mission is very desirable. The requirements for both near-term and outer planet science missions are briefly reviewed, and the near-term baseline system established under a recent study jointly conducted by the Lewis Research Center (LeRC) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is described. Technology issues are identified where work is needed to establish the technology for the baseline system, and technology opportunities which could provide improvement beyond baseline capabilities are discussed. Finally, the plan to develop this promising technology is presented and discussed.
NASA's progress in nuclear electric propulsion technology
AIAA, SAE, ASME, and ASEE, Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit ; 1993 ; Monterey, CA, United States
1993-06-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
NASA's nuclear electric propulsion technology project
NTRS | 1992
|NASA's nuclear electric propulsion technology project
NTRS | 1992
|