NASA got through the Artemis II mission last week with a few minor "anomalies," as NASA calls problems, but in 2028 it plans to launch a nuclear-powered rocket to Mars as an initial step to using nuclear-powered rockets in space.
An accident involving a nuclear-powered rocket could be no small anomaly.
The NASA plan was heralded in a section titled "America underway on nuclear power in space" in a NASA announcement on March 24th headed "NASA Unveils Initiatives to Achieve America's National Space Policy."
It said that "after decades of study and in response to the National Space Policy, NASA announced a major step forward in bringing nuclear power and propulsion from the lab to space. NASA will launch the Space Reactor"'1 Freedom, the first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft, to Mars before the end of 2028, demonstrating advanced nuclear electric propulsion in deep space."
Scientific American followed with an article the same day headlined: "NASA announces a nuclear-powered Mars mission by 2028." The subhead: "The U.S. space agency will aim to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars-- a first-- in a bid to show that nuclear propulsion can be used to send missions into deep space."
Pursuing use of nuclear propulsion in space has been a NASA aim for many years-- indeed, going back to the 1960s.
This was highlighted by NBC News correspondent Tom Costello, who covers space issues, in 2023 going to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama where work has been done and remains underway on developing nuclear rockets.
Costello reported: "NASA looks at going to the moon"and to Mars. And to get to Mars, they're going nuclear".While science and exploration are the driving motivators, there's also a competitive factor, China. The Chinese government is very secretive, and a lot of their plans involve their military preparations. And so, there's a reason for us to get there first. And NASA wants to get there faster"So to cut travel time, America is going back to the future."
"This project was called NERVA," Costello continued, citing NERVA (which stands for Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application), "the 1960s a government program that most Americans have never heard of to develop nuclear powered rockets. It turns out they made big progress back in the 60s, running expensive tests."
In Huntsville, he said, "they've got an exact replica to scale of the Saturn V [rocket]"Future astronauts will need that kind of lift. But once they're in space, they can use a much smaller engine, a nuclear engine, to go all the way to Mars and back"It's happening now at the Marshall Space Flight Center"This is where they put [together] components of nuclear thermal rockets."
Things did not go smoothly for NERVA.
"NASA: Lost its NERVA," was the heading in an article in Ad Astra in 2005 by longtime space journalist Leonard David. He wrote about how, "For NASA, it has been a long time in coming-- permission to use the 'N' word: for nuclear power in space. In many ways, it has been the political, financial and technological third rail of space exploration-- too hot of an issue to handle easily-- radioactive to boot."
He wrote that NERVA's "success was short-lived. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, U.S. President Richard Nixon nixed NASA and NERVA funding dramatically"Eventually, NERVA lost its funding and the project was scuttled in 1973."
It's not just the U.S. that is intending to use nuclear-powered rockets in space.
"Nuclear-powered rockets will win the new space race," was the headline last year in The Washington Post. The sub-head: "Russia and China are working hard for a nuclear-powered advantage in space. The U.S. must up its game."
"Space nuclear propulsion and power are not hypotheticals," said the article. "China is investing heavily in both terrestrial and space-based nuclear technologies, with plans to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars by 2033. Russia, too, has announced ambitious goals."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Post Article Comment and Rate This Article
