The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected three major space companies for the first phase of a larger project to test low-level nuclear propulsion by 2025.
General Atomics, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin each received contracts for the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program. While DARPA did not disclose the contract values in its announcement, the Space News media division reports that General Atomics received $ 22 million, Lockheed Martin $ 2.9 million and Blue Origin $ 2.5 million.
The teams were selected because of their ability to develop and deploy advanced systems for reactors, propulsion and spacecraft, DARPA officials said in a statement. The agency particularly emphasized the need for ‘rapid maneuver’ for military systems, but said it was difficult in space with conventional systems.
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“The current electrical and chemical propulsion systems in space have disadvantages in terms of weight and propulsion,” the agency said in the same publication, adding that the expected nuclear propulsion (NTP) is expected to address these common problems.
NTP systems use fission reactors that heat propellants (such as hydrogen) to high temperatures, which spray the gas at high speeds through nozzles to repel it. The pressure-to-weight ratio with NTP is about 10,000 times higher than electric propulsion systems, and the fuel efficiency (also known as specific impulse) is anywhere from two to five times greater than conventional chemical rockets, DARPA officials wrote in ‘ a description of the DRACO program.
The first phase of the program has two cuts, lasting 18 months, and each business follows different paths. Section A contains the preliminary design of the nuclear thermal propulsion reactor, together with the propulsion subsystem. Track B will create an “operating system spacecraft concept” to achieve future mission objectives, including a demonstration system.
Track A reactor development will be carried out by General Atomics, while Track B work will be pursued independently by Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin, DARPA added. “DRACO’s Phase 1 is expected to inform the follow – up phases for detailed design, manufacturing and demonstration on the track. DARPA will appeal the follow – up phases in a future announcement,” the agency said.
This month’s DARPA announcement follows a $ 14 million task order for DRACO to be awarded in September 2020 to Gryphon Technologies, a Washington, DC company that provides engineering and technical solutions to national security organizations.
The previous NASA administration was also interested in the potential of nuclear propulsion, especially to cut the travel time to Mars by half to about three or four months, compared to chemical propulsion. The agency said it hopes to bring astronauts to the Red Planet in the 2030s.
“This is absolutely a game changer for what NASA is trying to achieve,” former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a 2019 National Space Council meeting. “It gives us the opportunity to really protect life when we talk about the radiation dose when we travel between Earth and Mars,” he added.
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