ESA’s Nuclear Rocket: Faster Mars Missions

Arrive in March Takes a lot of time, about nine months using today’s rocket technology. Indeed, regular rocket engines burn fuel and oxygen together (like a car engine), but they are not very effective. The fundamental problem is that the spaceship must transport both fuel and oxidant because there is no air in space to support combustion. This creates a vicious circle: the more fuel you transport to go faster, the more heavy your spacecraft becomes heavy, requiring even more fuel to accelerate this additional weight. To go faster, you would need huge amounts of fuel, which makes the rockets incredibly expensive and heavy. Current chemical propulsion systems are roughly their theoretical limits, with little room for improving efficiency.

Related: Rockets for the red planet

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While the financing of NASA has been reduced by the Trump administration without any allocation of nuclear thermal propulsion and / or nuclear electric propulsion, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) studied nuclear propulsion. Here is how it works: instead of burning fuel with oxygen, a nuclear reactor warms a propellant like hydrogen. The super heated propellant then pulls the rocket nozzle, pushing the spaceship forward. This method is much more effective than chemical rockets.

Revisit nuclear rockets for March

Nuclear rockets offer several key advantages, such as reducing March travel times in two – from nine months to around four to five months. Efficiency gains come from the fact that nuclear reactors produce much more energy per unit of fuel than chemical reactions. Surprisingly, astronauts would in fact receive less harmful radiation during shorter travel, even if the engine itself produces radiation. This happens because space travelers are constantly bombed by cosmic radiation during their trip, and the reduction in journey time in two considerably reduces their total exposure. These engines work better for large spacecrafts which must accelerate and slow down considerably, perfect for Moon and Mars missions where fast speed changes of at least 25,000 km / h are necessary.

The study, called “old”, prioritized security by a meticulous design. The nuclear reactor only lights up when the spaceship is far from the earth on a safe orbit. Before activation, uranium fuel has a very low radioactivity and is not toxic. Several radiation shields protect the crew during short engine burns which last less than two hours. The reactor is designed to never return to the atmosphere of the earth. The research team has spent more than a year analyzing this technology and concluded that it is possible for long -term development. However, there is still important work in advance, including laboratory tests for the new design of ceramic metal reactors, the creation of safe test installations and the resolution of technical challenges such as fuel supply and reactor restart systems.

Nuclear thermal propulsion could revolutionize space trips, doing missions on Mars and the moon faster and more practical. Although technology is promising and seems safe, many years of development will take before seeing a nuclear propulsion spacecraft head to the red planet. It is great to see Europe demonstrate that it has expertise to develop this technology, potentially inauguration of a new era of spatial exploration where distant worlds become more accessible than ever.