Principles of Nuclear Rocket Propulsion, Second Edition continues to put the technical and theoretical aspects of nuclear rocket propulsion into a clear and unified presentation, providing an understanding of the physical principles underlying the design and operation of nuclear fission-based rocket engines. This new edition expands on existing material and adds new topics, such as antimatter propulsion, nuclear rocket startup, new fuel forms, reactor stability, and new advanced reactor concepts. This new edition is for aerospace and nuclear engineers and advanced students interested in nuclear rocket propulsion. - Provides an understanding of the physical principles underlying the design and operation of nuclear fission-based rocket engines - Includes a number of example problems to illustrate the concepts being presented - Contains an electronic version with interactive calculators and rotatable 3D figures to demonstrate the physical concepts being presented - Features an instructor website that provides detailed solutions to all chapter review questions

This monograph recounts and details the development of a nuclear rocket engine reactor (NRER). In particular, it explains the working capacity of an active zone NRER under mechanical and thermal load, intensive neutron fluxes, and high-energy generation (up to 30 MBT/l) in a working medium (hydrogen) at temperatures up to 3100 K. The design principles and bearing capacity of reactors area discussed on the basis of simulation experiments and test data of a prototype reactor. Property data of dense constructional, porous thermal insulating and fuel materials such as carbide and uranium carbide compounds in the temperatures interval 300 - 3000 K are presented.; technological aspects of strength and thermal strength resistance of materials are also considered. As well, a procedure to design possible emergency processes in the NRER is developed and risks for their origination are evaluated. Finally, prospects for use in pilotless space devices and piloted interplanetary ships are reviewed.

A fundamental and practical survey is made of nuclear rocket application to space vehicle propulsion. The engine is described and propellant and radiation effects are discussed. Project Rover is summarized and performance requirements for a space vehicle are discussed. It is concluded that nuclear rockets can provide substantial performance, reliability, and economic advantages for difficult space missions. (T.R.H.).

Interest in rockets that use fission reactors as the heat source has centered on manned flights to Mars. The demands of such missions require rockets that are several times more powerful than the chemical rockets in use today.Rocket engines operate according to the basic principles expressed in Newton's third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In a chemical rocket, hot gases are created by chemical combustion; in a nuclear rocket heating of the propellant in a nuclear reactor creates hot gas. In either case, the hot gases flow through the throat of the rocket nozzle where they expand and develop thrust.Extensive development effort has been expended on nuclear rockets. The nuclear Rover/ NERVA rocket programs provide a very high confidence level that the technology for a flight nuclear rocket exists. These programs demonstrated power levels between 507 MWt and 4,100 MWt and thrust levels of up to 930 kN (200,000 Ibf). Specific impulse, a measure of rocket performance, was more than twice that of chemical rockets. Ground testing and technology development has been done on several concepts described in this book. However, though there appear to be no technical barriers to the development of a successful nuclear rocket, no nuclear rockets have been flown in space.This book describes the fundamentals of nuclear rockets, the safety and other mission requirements, developmental history of various concepts both in the U.S. and Russia, and it summarizes key developmental issues.

This monograph recounts and details the development of a nuclear rocket engine reactor (NRER). In particular, it explains the working capacity of an active zone NRER under mechanical and thermal load, intensive neutron fluxes, and high-energy generation (up to 30 MBT/l) in a working medium (hydrogen) at temperatures up to 3100 K. The design principles and bearing capacity of reactors area discussed on the basis of simulation experiments and test data of a prototype reactor. Property data of dense constructional, porous thermal insulating and fuel materials such as carbide and uranium carbide compounds in the temperatures interval 300 - 3000 K are presented.; technological aspects of strength and thermal strength resistance of materials are also considered. As well, a procedure to design possible emergency processes in the NRER is developed and risks for their origination are evaluated. Finally, prospects for use in pilotless space devices and piloted interplanetary ships are reviewed.

Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration identifies primary technical and programmatic challenges, merits, and risks for developing and demonstrating space nuclear propulsion technologies of interest to future exploration missions. This report presents key milestones and a top-level development and demonstration roadmap for performance nuclear thermal propulsion and nuclear electric propulsion systems and identifies missions that could be enabled by successful development of each technology.

Chemically propelled rockets can lift less than 5 percent of their take-off weight into orbit, a fact that could forever limit the space program. Nuclear-powered rockets, however, with their superior thrusting power and speed, are radically different. So argues James A. Dewar in the only comprehensive history ever written of the nuclear rocket project. It is a story of political battles over the space program's future, involving Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, and a readable account of its technical successes, a story perhaps more interesting and certainly more important, Dewar believes, than the history of atomic and H-bomb development. Dewar maintains that only by reestablishing a nuclear rocket project can the nation have a space program worthy of the 21st century, one that makes reality of the hopes and dreams of science fiction.

This book presents a fundamentally different way of thinking about the space program and the role of nuclear rockets in it, arguing they require an infrastructure to become truly effective, an infrastructure that democratises it and opens space up to the common man. That must be the goal of a reconstituted program, not some kind of mission and not some scramble to a lunar base or manned mission to Mars. Those will come later, when conditions on earth are ripe for them, when all citizens can participate in their funding and profit from the conduct. Indeed, with a nuclear rocket, all citizens now can have personal access to space through a "free launch" program. The inevitable result of this would be massive amounts of cheap clean, energy from space.

Originally written in 1989, this book (Master's Thesis) reviews the state of the art in Gas-Core Nuclear Rocket design at the time of program termination in the 1970's, with updates for research performed during the 1980's. Major design problems are addressed and a proposal for an optimum design is included. This book may be especially appealing when one considers NASA's renewed mission to pioneer the future in space exploration.