RE: Nuclear powered rocket

["David Whitfill" <djwhitfill@MSN.COM>]

Good information...thanks! If we are serious about a Mars mission, a new 

NERVA prototype will have to be built. Being a proponent of research 

reactors I view a revival of the NERVA program as a good thing, but we need 

public support and the public needs to be educated in the risks along with 

past triumphs and failures. Here are some interesting links:



http://www.ans.neep.wisc.edu/~ans/point_source/AEI/sep95/rocket_programs.html



http://www.islandone.org/APC/Nuclear/02.html



http://www.lascruces.com/~mrpbar/rocket.html



=======================================

Dave and everybody,



I've been spending a lot of time lately looking at the nuclear rocket

program at NTS (for another reason, granted), but allow me to set this

record straight.



There was at least one failure, as noted, but this was actually a failure of

instrumentation and not the rocket itself.  It seems that the instruments

monitoring the level of hydrogen in the storage tanks failed, and the tanks

ran dry unexpectedly.  (The hydrogen was both coolant and propellant.)  As a

result, the rocket ran out of coolant and overheated.  However, the NERVA

program was actually quite successful in their efforts to build a nuclear

rocket engine, and there were several designs and many tests that

demonstrated that success.  They even had one test go for 28 starts and

shutdowns, and operated for over 4 hours.



It was really a matter of politics that doomed the program - this work was

going on during the Apollo days, and at the end of Apollo NASA did not have

firm political support to continue with manned planetary missions.

Therefore, chemical rockets were adequate and there was no need to continue

developments on the NERVA systems.



For a good recent review, check out the December, 2002, Nuclear News

interview with Harold Finger, the first joint AEC-NASA Space Nuclear

Propulsion Office Director.  There are also other articles in that edition

that discuss new space reactor concepts.  There has been renewed interest in

the program, so perhaps we may see another one built.



Doug Minnema, PhD, CHP

National Nuclear Security Administration, US DOE













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