{"id":17321,"date":"2023-01-24T20:17:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T12:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-joins-forces-with-darpa-on-effort-to-demonstrate-nuclear-rocket-for-mars-trips\/"},"modified":"2023-01-24T20:17:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T12:17:25","slug":"nasa-joins-forces-with-darpa-on-effort-to-demonstrate-nuclear-rocket-for-mars-trips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-joins-forces-with-darpa-on-effort-to-demonstrate-nuclear-rocket-for-mars-trips\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA joins forces with DARPA on effort to demonstrate nuclear rocket for Mars trips"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/230124-draco2-630x352.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-749739\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/230124-draco2-630x352.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/230124-draco2-1260x705.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/230124-draco2-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/230124-draco2-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/230124-draco2-2048x1146.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">An artist\u2019s conception shows a nuclear-powered demonstration rocket in space. (DARPA Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has taken on NASA as a partner for a project aimed at demonstrating a nuclear-powered rocket that could someday send astronauts to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>DARPA had already been working with commercial partners \u2014 including Blue Origin, the space venture created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as well as Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies, or USNC-Tech \u2014 on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations program, also known as DRACO. USNC-Tech supported Blue Origin plus another team led by Lockheed Martin during an initial round of DRACO design work.<\/p>\n<p>Now DARPA and NASA will be working together on the next two rounds of the DRACO program, which call for a commercial contractor to design and then build a rocket capable of carrying a General Atomics fission reactor safely into space for testing. The current plan envisions an in-space demonstration in fiscal year 2027.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever \u2013 a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars,\u201d NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said today in a news release.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s deputy administrator, Pam Melroy, noted that the space agency has had a \u201clong history of collaborating with DARPA on projects that enable our respective missions, such as in-space servicing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExpanding our partnership to nuclear propulsion will help drive forward NASA\u2019s goal to send humans to Mars,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NASA and DARPA-developed nuclear thermal rocket engine could be tested in few years\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-jmS6pDF3Ho?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In a nuclear thermal rocket, or NTR, the engine\u2019s reactor heats propellant to extreme temperatures to produce thrust. DARPA says an NTR would have a thrust-to-weight ratio 10,000 times greater than electric propulsion systems, and a specific impulse that\u2019s two to five times more efficient than traditional chemical propulsion systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the NTR uses propellant more efficiently, it offers more aggressive trajectories and creative burn profiles to move heavy cargo more quickly in the cislunar domain as compared to today\u2019s in-space propulsion methods,\u201d Tabitha Dobson, DARPA program manager for DRACO, said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Space Technology Mission Directorate will lead technical development of a nuclear thermal engine that would be integrated with DARPA\u2019s experimental spacecraft. DARPA is acting as the contracting authority for the development of the entire rocket stage and the engine, which includes the reactor. The U.S. Space Force has signaled its support for DRACO with the intent to provide the launch for the demonstration mission.<\/p>\n<p>The DRACO engine would use high-assay, low-enriched uranium instead of highly enriched uranium, and DARPA said the engine\u2019s fission reaction would be turned on only once it reaches space.<\/p>\n<p>DARPA spokesman Randy Atkins said the contract for the next phase of the DRACO program is due to be awarded in March. \u201cWe can\u2019t yet comment on who may or may not have bid for Phase 2,\u201d he told GeekWire in an email.<\/p>\n<p>DRACO isn\u2019t the only program supporting the development of nuclear thermal propulsion systems. In partnership with Blue Origin and other companies, USNC-Tech won a $5 million contract from NASA and the Department of Energy in 2021 to work on a longer-range nuclear propulsion effort called the Power Adjusted Demonstration Mars Engine, or PADME.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows a nuclear-powered demonstration rocket in space. (DARPA Illustration) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has taken on NASA as a partner for a project aimed at demonstrating a nuclear-powered rocket that could someday send astronauts to Mars. DARPA had already been working with commercial partners \u2014 including Blue Origin, the space [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,1504,190,4533,4405,4583],"class_list":["post-17321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-darpa","tag-nasa","tag-nuclear","tag-propulsion","tag-ultra-safe-nuclear"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}