NASA's First Nuclear-Powered Interplanetary Spacecraft Will Send Helicopters to Mars in 2028 (space.com) 22
After decades of studying, this week 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. Nuclear electric propulsion provides an extraordinary capability for efficient mass transport in deep space and enables high power missions beyond Jupiter where solar arrays are not effective.
Steven Sinacore, NASA's program executive for Fission Surface Power who will also oversee the SR-1 Freedom mission, emphasized to CNN that "On the ground the reactor is off. There's no radiation coming from it. It doesn't actually turn on until you're up in space, and that's where the radiation comes from." NASA says they aim to develop the capabilities required "for sustained exploration beyond the Moon and eventual journeys to Mars and the outer solar system."
And Space Reactor-1 Freedom will carry a fleet of tiny helicopters (much like Ingenuity) to explore Mars, reports Space.com: Whereas Ingenuity was a technology demonstrator, however, the Skyfall fleet will have concrete tasks. Chief among them is scout: If all goes to plan, the little choppers will help NASA assess the potential of their target area (wherever that happens to be) to support human exploration. The Skyfall helicopters will carry cameras and ground-penetrating radar to scout a future landing site, to understand the slopes and hazards for human-scale landers," Steve Sinacore, the program executive for NASA's Space Reactors Office, said during the briefing. "They will also map and characterize the subsurface water ice to find out where the water ice deposits are, along with the size, depth and other important characteristics," he added...
And that might not be the end of the line for SR-1 Freedom; NASA may decide to keep flying the spacecraft out into the solar system after it deploys the Skyfall choppers, according to Sinacore. The mission architecture, like much of NASA's exploration portfolio, is not yet finalized.
Steven Sinacore, NASA's program executive for Fission Surface Power who will also oversee the SR-1 Freedom mission, emphasized to CNN that "On the ground the reactor is off. There's no radiation coming from it. It doesn't actually turn on until you're up in space, and that's where the radiation comes from." NASA says they aim to develop the capabilities required "for sustained exploration beyond the Moon and eventual journeys to Mars and the outer solar system."
And Space Reactor-1 Freedom will carry a fleet of tiny helicopters (much like Ingenuity) to explore Mars, reports Space.com: Whereas Ingenuity was a technology demonstrator, however, the Skyfall fleet will have concrete tasks. Chief among them is scout: If all goes to plan, the little choppers will help NASA assess the potential of their target area (wherever that happens to be) to support human exploration. The Skyfall helicopters will carry cameras and ground-penetrating radar to scout a future landing site, to understand the slopes and hazards for human-scale landers," Steve Sinacore, the program executive for NASA's Space Reactors Office, said during the briefing. "They will also map and characterize the subsurface water ice to find out where the water ice deposits are, along with the size, depth and other important characteristics," he added...
And that might not be the end of the line for SR-1 Freedom; NASA may decide to keep flying the spacecraft out into the solar system after it deploys the Skyfall choppers, according to Sinacore. The mission architecture, like much of NASA's exploration portfolio, is not yet finalized.
Lol (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re: Lol (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
We didn't have good ion thrusters back in the 50s, 60s and 70s and after that launching nuclear reactors into space was considered a bad idea, not without reason. A nuke plus ion engines isn't a slam dunk either, ion engines produce very little thrust and reactors are heavy even if you don't have to bother shielding them much, so there's an efficiency threshold you need to hit before it's worthwhile.
NASA has realized that beating, or at least competing with
Re: Lol (Score:4, Interesting)
The first fission reactor in space, the American SNAP-10A had an experimental ion thruster.
The Soviets launched dozens of nuclear powered satellites, but again, thrusters were only used experimentally.
So while not actually "the first nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft" (RTGs win that) it is the first nuclear-powered rocket in space, aside from small experiments.
With only 2N thrust, it is no use below LEO, and solar power is plenty good enough for ion-drives in earthly satellites. So nuclear-powered rockets are only useful for interplanetary missions, for now.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but it didn't go to Mars. That's why I said we didn't have good ion thrusters. The one on SNAP lasted a whole hour and apparently had quite a few problems even then. Getting the things to last long enough and produce enough thrust to be useful even for station keeping is a fairly recent thing.
Too Compllex - Use solar-powered Balloon or Blimp (Score:2)
All for it, but would like to know the launch risk (Score:2)
If the launch fails at a point where it is say 50 miles up, and the reactor has been turned on prior to launch so that the core is now highly radioactive, it could rain down fission products on Europe or Africa. If the core has never been turned on, the risks might be mitigated.
Re:All for it, but would like to know the launch r (Score:4, Interesting)
If the launch fails at a point where it is say 50 miles up, and the reactor has been turned on prior to launch.
The conops says that the reactor doesn't get turned on until after it's successfully placed in a high orbit.
A good feature of nuclear reactors is that they aren't dangerously radioactive until after you turn them on.
Re: (Score:2)
If the launch fails at a point where it is say 50 miles up, and the reactor has been turned on prior to launch so that the core is now highly radioactive
You've answered your own question. Don't turn it on until safely in orbit.
Usually that sort of question comes from people who don't understand that reactor fuel is barely radioactive (only the waste).
Re: (Score:3)
Queue up ... (Score:4, Funny)
Send Helicopters to Mars
Re: (Score:2)
"I love the smell of iron oxide in the morning!"
First? No. (Score:2)
Why not yes? (Score:2)
NASA has sent up several nuclear powered craft.
Right but what they are talking about is nuclear propulsion. Don't like how space.com writes? You can go right to the source instead of wasting other people's time. https://www.nasa.gov/ignition/ [nasa.gov]
Doubt (Score:2)
Trump in his first term was willing to go all-in on human spaceflight to mars...until he realized he couldn't get it done before the end of his term. Trump has always been interested in space stuff...but only if it's achievable within his term. This seems like a play to keep contractors employed and skills sharp until the next administration is seated, which will hopefully be willing to invest in goals longer than 4 years.
You just know... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nah. Airwolf Theme [youtube.com]
Highly detailed technical description :o (Score:2)
ClippyAI: “The system uses high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) oxide fuel with heat pipe cooling and a closed brayton cycle converter and boron carbide for radiation shield.”