Representatives of the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) several years ago expressed a desire to patrol outer space around the Earth, as well as outside the orbit of the Moon. However, even then it was clear that flights even over such a modest distance were impossible for modern spacecraft.
“Maneuvering in space is more difficult due to the limitations of the propulsion system,” said Maj. Nathan Greiner, program manager for DARPA’s Tactical Technology Administration.
Soon there was information that in order to implement an ambitious project, American researchers had the idea to use nuclear power plants on the spacecraft – more recently, their development has been financed by the US Department of Defense. And yesterday, on May 4, representatives of DARPA officially announced the launch of a competition for the implementation of the second and third stages of the DRACO (Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations) program. As part of the current program, participating companies must independently develop the latest nuclear power plant, which will be installed on nuclear launch vehicles.
Specialists from DARPA said that during the current stages of the space program, participating companies will have to design, develop and manufacture a nuclear thermal rocket engine, which can later be installed on a spacecraft and sent on a launch vehicle into Earth’s orbit. Moreover, they do not plan to delay the launch of nuclear spacecraft – the program documentation states that a demonstration of a nuclear engine should take place in fiscal year 2026. If everything goes well, these developments will greatly simplify NASA’s manned space flights.
It is worth noting that a nuclear thermal engine provides a fairly high thrust-to-weight ratio (it is almost comparable to a chemical power plant), but at the same time, the efficiency of such an engine is two to five times higher.
Source: Trash Box
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