When the topic of nuclear energy is mentioned, what do you think of? Warfare, the radiation in Chernobyl & environmental danger probably comes to mind. Nuclear power is often fear mongered, seen as an extremely unpredictable energy source. But some projects require the energy output a nuclear engine could produce. What if nuclear engines were implemented in rocket ships so we can travel the universe even faster & farther than before? That’s exactly what the engineers at Lockheed Martin are doing.
Lockheed Martin is a company specializing in the development of aeronautics & defense technology. In July of 2023, the company received a contract from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. The contract entails the development of a nuclear-powered spacecraft that can demonstrate its capabilities & advantages. This project is called Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). DRACO is monitored & endorsed by DARPA but also NASA as both companies predict promising results to be made.
The engines made under DRACO perform nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP). Hydrogen propellant is rapidly heated by a nuclear reactor & channeled outward through a funnel. Once the rocket using NTP reaches space, a fission-based reactor takes over, running on high-assay low-enriched uranium, HALEU, to convert cryogenic hydrogen into an extremely hot pressurized gas to propel the rocket further. Lockheed Martin’s JETSON program manager is very excited about DRACO’s results, “Nuclear fission development for space applications is key to introducing technologies that could dramatically change how we move and explore in the vastness of space.” When compared to the standard of chemical propulsion. Lockheed Martin’s NTP performs with an efficiency two to five times greater. A rocket using NTP can reach locations like Mars at faster speeds using less propellant than chemical propelled rockets. Vice president of Lunar Exploration Campaigns at Lockheed Martin emphasizes the importance of NTP when he says “Reducing transit time is vital for human missions to Mars to limit a crew’s exposure to radiation.”
DARPA & NASA are invested in NTP for the purpose of pushing deep space travel. Current spaceships do not have the fuel efficiency or performance to reach planets like Mars as these companies intend to & other celestial bodies beyond our reach. DRACO is set to possibly finish as soon as 2027 for DARPA & NASA to use to explore our universe.
