Nuclear propulsion tradeoffs for manned Mars missions
Conference
·
· AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics); (United States)
- B W Nuclear Technologies, Space Defense Systems, P.O. Box 10935, Lynchburg, Virginia 24506-0935 (US)
A conjunction class split/sprint manned Mars exploration mission was studied to evaluate tradeoffs in performance characteristics of nuclear thermal rockets. A Particle Bed Reactor-based nuclear thermal rocket was found to offer a 38% to 52% total mass savings compared with a NERVA-based nuclear thermal rocket for this mission. This advantage is primarily due to the higher thrust-to-weight ratio of the Particle Bed Reactor nuclear rocket. The mission is enabled by nuclear thermal rockets. It cannot be performed practically using chemical propulsion.
- OSTI ID:
- 5484636
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-910116--
- Conference Information:
- Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics); (United States) Journal Volume: 217:2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210600 -- Power Reactors
Auxiliary
Mobile Package
& Transportable
220800* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Propulsion Reactors
DESIGN
ENGINES
GAS COOLED REACTORS
HYDROGEN COOLED REACTORS
MARS SPACE PROBES
MOBILE REACTORS
NERVA REACTOR
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
POWER REACTORS
PROPULSION REACTORS
REACTORS
ROCKET ENGINES
SPACE POWER REACTORS
SPACE PROPULSION REACTORS
SPACE VEHICLES
VEHICLES
210600 -- Power Reactors
Auxiliary
Mobile Package
& Transportable
220800* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Propulsion Reactors
DESIGN
ENGINES
GAS COOLED REACTORS
HYDROGEN COOLED REACTORS
MARS SPACE PROBES
MOBILE REACTORS
NERVA REACTOR
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
POWER REACTORS
PROPULSION REACTORS
REACTORS
ROCKET ENGINES
SPACE POWER REACTORS
SPACE PROPULSION REACTORS
SPACE VEHICLES
VEHICLES