In future space missions can travel to Mars, Asteroids, and External Solar System by riding on atomic-operated rockets, thanks to a new design that uses energy from atomic fragmentation of liquid uranium.
The exciting capacity of the new technology, which is called a centrifugal atomic thermal Rocket (CNTR), can be very neatly expressed by its specific impulse, which suggests how efficient a rocket is that produces the thrust. In theory, a CNTR rocket can double the specific impulse provided by previous nuclear thermal rocket designs that dating back back in the 1950s (and Still working By NASA and Darpa Today), quadruple that can be obtained by chemical rockets.
Although no nuclear-managed rocket ever flows, space agencies worldwide are rapidly looking at nuclear propulsion, which is as a means of intensifying intestinal trips.
Dean Wang of Ohio State University, who is one of the authors of a new NASA-funded study in CNTR, “You are more susceptible to all types of health risks, you are more for all types of health risks.” statement“So if we can make any small, it will be very beneficial.”
Traditional nuclear thermal rockets use solid uranium fuel in fission reactions that heat a liquid hydrogen propalent to the point where it can expand through a nozzle at a high sufficient velocity to generate a thrust. On the other hand, the CNTR, a rotating cylinder (therefore, “centrifugal”) facilitates liquid uranium that increases the efficiency of the engine, which maximizes the fragmentation response.
“In recent years, interest in nuclear thermal propulsion technology has increased significantly because we consider returning humans. moon And working in Sic-Lunar space, “Wang said.” But beyond this, a new system is required, as traditional chemical engines may not be possible. ,
CNTR technology will take away the spacecraft at theoretically low fuel, making the mission capable of zipping Earth And for the moon or crew round-trips Mars planet It takes just 420 days unlike two-and-a-half to three years, the deadline offered by chemical rockets. Travels for exterior Solar system It can be completed more quickly, and because these atomic rockets allow for more velocity than their chemical counterparts, they can follow the trajectory rapidly that are usually out of question for the latter.
Hydrogen should also not be the only form of propalent. A range of materials can be used, some of which can be extracted Asteroid, Comet And Cuper belt The objects during the journey enable the mission to travel far away again.
Although CNTR currently exists only on paper, Wang’s team is targeting the concept to reach the design of design over the next five years. If it is successful, the missions around the middle of this century can be very fast and more securely without explosive risks of chemical rockets around the solar system.
The use of nuclear power in space is mixed. Many long -term spacecraft, such as Mars rovers Curiosity And PerseveranceUse Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTGS) to provide electricity. Recently, NASA has spoken controversial about placing a nuclear reactor on the moon. With respect to rockets, scientists in the 1950s discovered a lot of explosive possibility: by exploding a sequence of nuclear explosions and riding a propulsive blast waves to pursue a spacecraft. The most notable project was Orion, a concept study led by Physicists’ Framean Dyson and Ted Taylor and was funded by the US Air Force, Darpa and NASA. Again, in the 1970s, researchers associated with the British Interplander Society produced a comprehensive design study called Project Dadlas, which conceived a nuclear fusion-powered engine that could reach 12% Motion of light And reach the nearest stars in half a century.
Obviously, as we are still stuck on Earth, nothing has come from these nuclear-managed design studies. Although it is not on the same scale as those highly ambitious projects, the CNTR is expected to be successful that the spaceflight needs to become more routine and reach new frontiers.
A paper describing CNTR was published in the September 2025 edition of the journal Acta astronotica,
