#atomicrocket

Isaac Ji Kuo @isaackuo@mastodon.social

Thorium 228 Atomic Sail drive proposed for 150km/s missions

James Bickford of Charles Stark Draper Laboratory proposes a Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) for probes suitable for outer solar system missions and missions to interstellar interloper objects.

https://www.nasa.gov/general/thin-film-isotope-nuclear-engine-rocket/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Mq7q5797E

#SpaceTechnology #AtomicRocket

@nyrath

Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) - NASA

Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket

NASA

Feb 09, 2024, 02:19 · · 2 · 0

Lazarou Monkey Terror @Lazarou@mastodon.social

Sexy news for the #AtomicRocket nerds out there, I see ya!
Look at those radiators, pwoar!
"Jan 24, 2023
RELEASE 23-012
#NASA, #DARPA Will Test Nuclear Engine for Future Mars Missions"

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-darpa-will-test-nuclear-engine-for-future-mars-missions

$Nuclear Propulsion Could Help Get Humans to Mars Faster As NASA's Perseverance rover homes in on the Red Planet, engineers on the ground are furthering potential propulsion technologies for the first human missions to Mars. NASA is looking at two types of nuclear propulsion systems - nuclear electric and nuclear thermal propulsion. Nuclear electric propulsion systems use propellants much more efficiently than chemical rockets but provide a low amount of thrust. They use a reactor to generate electricity that positively charges gas propellants like xenon or krypton, pushing the ions out through a thruster, which drives the spacecraft forward. Using low thrust efficiently, nuclear electric propulsion systems accelerate spacecraft for extended periods and can propel a Mars mission for a fraction of the propellant of high thrust systems. Illustration of a Mars transit habitat and nuclear propulsion system that could one day take astronauts to Mars. Credits: NASA$