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NASA aims to test nuclear-powered spacecraft by 2027

NASA and DARPA will work together in the development of the new nuclear powered spacecraft.

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NASA and DARPA will work together in the development of the new nuclear powered spacecraft.
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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said on Tuesday that as part of a long-term endeavour to show more effective means of propelling future passengers to Mars, the United States wants to test a spaceship engine fueled by nuclear fission by 2027.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said during a symposium in National Harbor, Maryland, that the agency will collaborate with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a nuclear thermal propulsion engine and send it into orbit as soon as 2027.

The United States Space Agency has spent years researching nuclear thermal propulsion, which involves heating a hydrogen propellant using a nuclear fission reactor to generate thrust. This method is thought to be far more efficient than chemical rocket engines.

Nuclear thermal propulsion is seen as essential by NASA authorities for human exploration beyond the moon. They estimate that a voyage to Mars from Earth using the technology would take around four months, as opposed to about nine months with a traditional, chemically fueled engine.

In addition to reducing the amount of time astronauts spend in deep space radiation, this would also minimise the amount of food and other supplies needed for a mission to Mars.

DARPA and NASA officials have claimed that the planned demonstration in 2027, which is part of an existing DARPA research programme that NASA is now joining, might also influence the goals of the United States Space Force, which has envisioned deploying nuclear reactor-powered spacecraft capable of moving other satellites in orbit near the moon.

Also, READ: New study reveals earth's inner core has stopped spinning and may be changing direction

General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Jeff Bezos' aerospace business Blue Origin all received funding from DARPA in 2021 to explore nuclear reactor and spaceship concepts. The manager of the programme, Tabitha Dodson, said in an interview that the government would choose the business that will construct the nuclear spacecraft for the 2027 demonstration sometime in March.

The funding for the combined NASA-DARPA endeavour is USD 110 million for FY2023, and it is anticipated to grow by the hundreds of millions of dollars until FY2027.

(With inputs from Reters)

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