Russia to start research into spacecraft nuclear engines in 2010
RIA Novosti
Russia will launch research into nuclear engines for spaceships from 2010, the head of the Federal Space Agency said on Sunday.
“Nuclear engines for spaceships are a very promising area. Such engines should be created to make flights to Mars and other planets, for example,” Anatoly Perminov said.
Perminov earlier said that the development of Megawatt-class nuclear space power systems (MCNSPS) for manned spacecraft was crucial for Russia if the country wanted to maintain a competitive edge in the space race, including the exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Read the full story.
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I heard that the Vasimr engine from AD ASTRA (usa) can reach Mars in 28 days or less!
fragment of article:
“The 39 day mission to Mars using VASIMR propulsion takes 200 Megawatts total input power driving 4-to-8 yet to be designed VASIMR engines that will sink 25-to-50 MW each. VASIMR can change its ISP from 1,000 seconds to over 30,000 seconds so its thrust generation efficiency can be adjusted from ~10,000 Watts/Newton at 1,000 seconds all the way up to ~300,000 Watts/Newton at 30,000 second Isp, so it really needs a big set of nuclear reactors to drive them. Dr. Chang Diaz needs to have a set of three, 75MW or larger reactors to drive his proposed 39 mission to Mars. If we could double that power level then we could deliver even shorter Earth to Mars trips times on the order of 4 weeks (28 days) or less.”
Link: http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/12/vasimr-and-stronger-nuclear-reactors.html
Its no wonder that Russia is wake up. Its time to act!
It’s not at all clear from the article if they mean nuclear reactors generating power for electric rockets (ion and plasma, including VASIMR) or nuclear-thermal rockets, like the old NERVA program in the U.S.
Or both…