Writen by Pablo G. Bejerano, November 8, 2019.
web: https://blogthinkbig.com/nasa-plantea-enviar-cohetes-nucleares-luna-marte
traduction: arkangel
The arrival on Mars would be imminent if the headlines offered the aerospace sector were attended to. Not only ANSA but also Eon Musk’s company Space X, as well as other space agencies, have shown their interest is a lot of noise around this goal, but few specific projects.
NASA is in all probability the organism bets placed to undertake the arrival to tthe red planet. However, to this day the strategy remains unclear. UNtil now, no neophyte in the field – but with a certain fondness for the subject – has crossed his mind that mode fo transport to mars was not goint to be powered by hydrogen. You could be wrong.
Withim NASA, in NTRESS (Nuclear Thermal Rochet Element Enviomental Simulator) porject explores the posibility of using nuclear fission reactors as rocket propellants. The result would be NASA’S nuclear rockets, whose originsdate back to the 1950s. At that time, a nuclear weapon was detoned im a rocket for first time.
IN 1961 a nuclear rocket was used to carry the first American into space. The NTRESS project studies by simulation how materials react to extreme heat. The objective is to find the formula so that small-scale nuclear fission reaction does not damage the structure of the rocket.
It realit, a nuclear rocket is much mpre efficiaat is powered by hidrogen. Some tn one tent technical opinion within NASA leans more towards this option to go to Mars. And it is that with a rocket time to rech the red planet would be reduced by half.
The potential of nuclear rockets
Despote being a controversial means of space transportation, nuclear rockets have some highly apprectated advanges. For example, the estimated flight time in one of these vehicles to reach Mars would lowered to 100 days. This is key, beacause longer the trip lasts, the dificulties of the mission increase. And Mars is far away, much farther tahn the Moon. TO get an idea, our satellite is 384,000 kilometers away. The red planet, at its closest moment, is 59 million kilometers away.
But the fision `prcess would also bring other advancges on Mars. NASA has worked on the hypothesis of the establishment of a nuclear reactor on the planet. IN this way, future colonies on the Mars surface could be supplied with energy.
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