NASA has just awarded a eighteen million eight hundred thousand dollar contract to BWXT Nuclear Energy to start on a conceptual design for a nuclear reactor for possible use on a manned Mars mission. BWXT is a subsidiary of BWX Technologies which provides nuclear components, nuclear fuel and nuclear services to the nuclear industry.
The CEO of BWX Technologies said, Rex Geveden, BWX Technologies' president and CEO, said yesterday: "We are uniquely qualified to design, develop and manufacture the reactor and fuel for a nuclear-powered spacecraft. This is an opportune time to pivot our capabilities into the space market where we see long-term growth opportunities in nuclear propulsion and nuclear surface power."
The reactor would burn low-enriched uranium which less than twenty percent uranium-235. It would be part of a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) rocket engine that could propel a space craft to Mars and back. A new ceramic-metallic fuel called “Cermet” is being developed for the NTP.
Nuclear thermal propulsion has a variety of benefits when compared to current chemically propulsion. The NTP engines are more efficient than current engines and they have a greater power density. The end result is that the entire propulsion system and fuel are lighter and occupy less space than current propulsion systems. A nuclear thermal rocket should have about twice the efficiency of the engines that powered the U.S. Space Shuttle main engines. It will be ideal for delivery of larger, automated payloads to distant worlds as well as providing the propulsion for manned missions to deep space.
One of the biggest benefits of such an engine would be to reduce the travel time to and from Mars from six months to four months. This is very important because it would reduce the amount of fuel, food, and water that would have to be carried on the mission. In addition it would reduce the exposure of the human crew to radiation and a zero gravity environment both of which have serious impact on human health.
The NASA contract includes the initial conceptual design of the reactor, the initial development of fuel and core fabrication, assisting in licensing for initial testing on the ground, and development of the engine test program. The contract is expected to take about three years and will extend through 2019 if Congress appropriates the funds and if the BWXT exercises the full range of options in the contract. NASA believes that the time is right for serious exploration of NTP engines. NASA believes that NTP could “significantly change space travel.”
The contract with BWXT is part of a NASA program called Game Changing Development (GCD). The GCD is part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. In the words of NASA representatives, it could “lead to entirely new approaches” for future space missions. It could “provide solutions to significant national needs.” The NTP project manager said "As we push out into the solar system, nuclear propulsion may offer the only truly viable technology option to extend human reach to the surface of Mars and to worlds beyond."
The idea of using nuclear power for space travel is certainly not new. NASA said "The USA conducted studies and significant ground tests from 1955 to 1972 to determine the viability of such systems, but ceased testing when plans for a crewed Mars mission were deferred. Since then, nuclear thermal propulsion has been revisited several times in conceptual mission studies and technology feasibility projects. Thanks to renewed interest in exploring the Red Planet in recent decades, NASA has begun new studies of nuclear thermal propulsion, recognizing its potential value for exploration of Mars and beyond.”
