Nuclear Propulsion From Earth to Mars in Just 45 Days

today's video is brought to you by holes Kern more on them later 154 years ago in 1869 America witnessed a galactic-sized Leap Forward in transportation Tech that year the first transcontinental rail line was opened connecting the long-settled East Coast with the very distant West with its arrival American life was transformed whereas once going west had meant months of braving dangerous routes treacherous weather and the possibility of having to cannibalize your stranded companions now it simply meant buying a train ticket kicking back and watching the continent sweep past in barely a week for those who lived through it it must have been a transformational moment an era in which the boundaries of the Great Wide World suddenly became visibly smaller the good news Well we might be living through an equally epochial age one that will shrink not just the borders of the world but of the entire solar system as you watch this Engineers connected to NASA are working on a new generation of rockets rockets that will combine nuclear thermal and nuclear electric propulsion to slash travel times getting to Mars for example will no longer takes seven months rather it'll take a mere 45 days and that raises some tantalizing possibilities of soon witnessing a crude Mars Landing of colonization possibilities that may finally turn humans into an interplanetary species [Music] thank you for fans of extremely Dorking news 2023 started with a delightful presence the announcement of the latest phase one funding for NASA's Innovative advanced concepts program known as niac the program is OS science dreams are born it's a space equivalent of Walt Disney's imagineering Department a place where fascinating concepts are explored and fleshed out in the hopes of one day becoming real this year's selection did not disappoint among our favorites are Titan error flying boat that would explore the methane Seas of Saturn's largest moon and a plan to use lasers to accelerate a one-ton payload to so fast that would cross 500 astronomical units of space in a mere 15 years but even among these gems there was one proposal that really stood out a proposal as a conceivably alter our conception of solar system distances a proposal to design nuclear rockets that could fly human to Mars in just 45 days the brainchild of Ryan Goss and the University of Florida the project is officially known by the deeply unsexy name of new class of bi-modal ntp NEP with a wave cycle rotor topping cycle enabling fast transit to Mars yeah they could have come up with a better name couldn't they but what this word salad lacks in credibility it more than makes up for with its revolutionary content the ntp part of that title stands for nuclear thermal propulsion A system that powers rockets by using an onboard reactor to heat liquid propellant turning it into gas and expelling it out of a nozzle to create thrust it's twice as efficient as the chemical rocket systems that we use today and can quickly speed up a craft to an ungodly velocity any B on the other hand stands for nuclear electric propulsion unlike NDP NEP uses a reactor to create electricity this current is then used to positively charge an inert gas like Xenon and far the arms out of a Thruster pushing the craft forward unlike ntp nuclear electric propulsion creates a relatively gentle thrust the plier for a long time though and the craft can build up to incredible speeds all while using remarkably little propellant together these two systems ntp in any are the major forms of nuclear propulsion that space agencies are considering for development but the University of Florida plan goes further rather than just working on ntp or NEP it envisages sticking both systems onto a single rocket and that's the bimodal part of that long ass title as their proposal puts it to quote this bimodal design enables the fast transit for manned missions 45 days to Mars and revolutionizes the deep space exploration of our solar system which is great news for NASA as getting to Mars is something the agency is desperate to do today's video is brought to you by hallscan and for those who are not familiar horoscope creates beautiful watches and jewelry from natural materials like Hoskin mayor starlets more but they've come a long way they've now almost had a million happy customers and it's not hard to see why their products are absolutely unique and made with so much care and attention to detail personally I love this watch that I have here it's got this beautiful wooden design it's this blue steel and then wooden in design all through the links here which does make it unique and great looking each watch is made with natural material so every piece is completely unique and not only that but the quality and comfort is fantastic but don't just saying my word for it there are so many amazing products to choose from on their website they've got watches jewelry sunglasses and even Handbags and the designs are varied so there's something for everyone but it's not just about products Hall's kind of amazing philosophy they believe in creating personal pieces of nature that remind you to spend time consciously be proud and unique and have an emotional connection with nature in fact they even support reforestation projects and other initiatives that promote Environmental Protection and social support so not only do you get an amazing product but you're also supporting a company that gives Back To Nature so what are you waiting for head on over to world.holsgan.com forward slash en underscore World forward slash Mega projects there's a link to that below and use the promo code mega15 to get 15 of all products and a free polishing cloth worth 15 euros trust me you won't regret it and now back to today's video since 2020 basser has been under a 10-year deadline imposed by the White House to show off its nuclear prowess by safely depositing a 10 kilowatt power system on the surface of the Moon a year later Congress handed the agency an extra 110 million dollars to design nuclear rockets that could be used for interplanetary voyages this dovetailed nicely with NASA's own plans to investigate bimodal ntp NEP systems which has been a priority since 2017. the results a whole new set of deadlines one to use a nuclear robot to place cargo on Mars by 2033 another to place humans on the red planet by 2039. the University of Florida proposal is an integral part of making this happen now before you rush off to pack your spacesuit we should be clear that this is still early days of development the niac's phase one grants is just 12 500 per project even if it succeeds Beyond everybody's Wildest Dreams it's a few years out from becoming reality still it's a good opportunity for us to take a closer look at NASA's nuclear rocket and Mars Landing plans in general but trust me if you're anything like us what you're about to hear will make you extremely excited for the future at this stage you might be wondering why NASA are so invested in nuclear propulsion I mean sure it's quicker but it's not like regular old chemical Rockets are incapable of reaching the red planet after all we've already deposited multiple Rovers on our Cosmic sibling but the point is that rovers are not humans they're machines robots that we could deposit on the Martian service and then leave there once the mission is over astronauts by contrast well they're living people people NASA has a major need not just to get to Mars but to keep alive and then get them back surprise and it turns out that the goal of not letting everyone die like in some sci-fi horror movie is made easier by using nuclear propulsion to understand why let's have a quick look at travel times we mentioned in the opening how a normal trip to Mars takes around seven months on chemical Rockets compared to just 45 days with nuclear propulsion but this doesn't come close to explaining just how long a mission would really be Mars like the other planets is not a fixed distance from Earth because we all go whizzing around the Sun at different speeds our sibling is sometimes relatively nearby and sometimes right on the other side of our parents star that means that Mars missions can only be launched every 26 months when Planet 4 is at its closest what's known as Mars opposition and this isn't just something that needs to be considered on the outward Journey waiting for the right planetary alignment for a return trip will require astronauts to spend at least a year on Mars add in the outward and return Journey times each lasting between six and nine months and you can potentially winds up having each Mars mission last nearly three years that's three years in which your crew will need to be kept alive three years in which they'll spend a dangerously long amount of time in space where they'll likely be exposed to radiation and deal with microgravity and other stuff that does things to your body that are watching MSNBC does to your brain ruin it for these reasons NASA is trying to cut Mission times down to a maximum of two years shaving five months or more off both outward and return Journeys will be a massive help with that but it's not just astronaut Health the NASA is having to worry about the second major Improvement nuclear propulsion brings is far more prosaic it's much much cheaper chemical Rockets require lots of repellent so much that just getting enough propellant off Earth for a single Mars mission could set NASA back 80 billion dollars last year Scientific American crunched the numbers the International Space Station weighs 420 metric tons and took a decade of launches to assemble well the propellant alone for a Mars mission could weigh between twice and 10 times that this means between 840 and 4 200 tons of material that NASA would need to get into space just to act as fuel on current systems that could cost nearly 80 billion dollars in launches even when spacex's Starship which can haul up to 100 done starts making routine flights it'll still be a time-consuming and expensive Endeavor by contrast nuclear propulsion offers virtually unlimited energy density the total mass for a nuclear rocket and its fuel source together would be somewhere in the region of 500 to a thousand tons sure it's still heavy but it's no longer prohibitively heavy with fewer launches the cost of emission would plummet this in turn makes flying to Mars less off-putting to the people funding NASA so everybody wins so that's the why of nuclear propulsion as in why is this a good idea let's now turn to the what or more accurately the question of what the heck is all this Tech anyway I'm making a video like this about Cutting Edge Tech it's often easier to focus on all of the benefits that it can bring it makes the story more exciting it makes it a lot more fun to research as well of course though real life rarely presents us with technology free of downsides if it did would all be living in the culture and enjoying unlimited pleasure instead of existing in a world of Twitter algorithms and creepy Microsoft Chat Bots and that goes for ntp and NEP while both have massive advantages to recommend them they both also come with their own set of headaches and challenges let's look at nuclear thermal propulsion first as we mentioned earlier ntp runs by using a nuclear reactor to each repellent liquid hydrogen until it becomes an ionized gas and is expelled out of the Rocket's backside like some gigantic space bars and that generates thrust the issue here is that to keep the propellant the reactor has to be operating at some pretty high temperatures temperatures around the 2500 Celsius that's 4 4 500 Fahrenheit Mark making sure it maintains those temperatures and works well in deep space without endangering the craft is a pretty tricky challenge one that gives material Engineers cluster headaches on top of that NDP still needs vast amounts of repellent a mere fraction of what chemical rocket requires sure but still enough that Engineers will need to figure out how to incorporate serious sized storage tanks the flip side is that once it's all in place an ntp rocket is pretty straightforward you use the system to build up tremendous speed and mere hours hurling yourself towards Mars an NEP system by contrast requires weeks or even months to gradually build up the velocity it's capable of it's only by running for very long times that ion engines in general can generate significant levels of thrust and this is a problem because nuclear electric propulsion also generates massive amounts of unwanted thermal energy so NASA needs to come up with a way to dissipate duel safely a process that could involve equipping the craft with giant radiators on the outside the word could in that last sentence is a clue to another issue with NEP it's a relatively new technology that requires a lot more development compared to ntp but while an ntp rocket alone would shave months off a trip to Mars it's not the fastest method out there no that would be a rocket that combines both ntp and NEP systems and this is where the University of Florida proposal that we opened with comes back in while not the only team looking at buy mode or nuclear propulsion the Florida guys have some extra bells and whistles on their design that make it even more attractive specifically they've included a pressure wave supercharger now look we're not rocket scientists we can't pretend to fully understand these things any more than rocket scientists fully understand how to present popular YouTube channels while rocking a spectacular Blazer these things are definitely equal in their complexity so instead of trying to explain it ourselves we're just going to use this quote from the wonderful Universe today the proposal also includes a pressure wave supercharger or wave rotor WR a technology used in internal combustion engines that harnesses the pressure waves produced by reactions to compress intake air when paired with an ntp engine the WR would use the pressure created by the reactor's heating of the lh2 fuel to compress the reaction Mass further in other words it will generate a whole extra level of thrust one that only increases when you include an NEP right now ntp engines create what's called a specific impulse of 900 seconds sticking the wave rotor onto it will increase that to 1400 to 2000 seconds add in the wave rotor in the NEP cycle and you get a specific impulse of 1800 to 4 000 seconds even non-rocket scientists like us can see that that's a fairly massive Improvement it's how we could see a ship get to Mars in 45 days not that ideas like this just appear out of The Ether though impressive as it is the Florida teams concept is only possible thanks to Decades of groundwork [Music] considering it's currently 2023 and flying a crude nuclear Rocket To Mars remains sadly hypothetical it'll either blow your mind or really burn you out to hear that NASA first considered doing this in wait for it 1958. that means that Eisenhower was still in the white house when the agency commissioned a formal study for a nuclear-powered 420-day mission to Mars in fact it was so far back that NASA didn't even exist yet at this stage it was just the national advisory committee for Aeronautics regardless the vision of American astronauts planting these stars and stripes on the red planet was still enticing enough that serious work went into the program works that took it farther than anyone could have predicted in tandem with the space nuclear propulsion office NASA spent a whole chunk of the 1960s working on something called nerva an acronym for nuclear engine for Rocket vehicle applications opened in 1963 the program would lead to 23 nuclear reactor tests at a government site in Nevada's wonderfully named Jack glass Flats by the end of the decade the snpo would have certified an ntp solid core nuclear thermal engine as suitable for crude missions prototype Rockets were tested here on Earth but NASA riding nuclear Rockets to Mars became Central to the agency's vision for following up on the Apollo program and all of which raises a rather obvious question what happened how come we're not now living in a world where the U.S put a man on Mars several decades ago well for that oh you can thank the man responsible for so many of his ear is disappointments Richard Nixon in 1973 the Nixon White House acts the nuclear propulsion project and ruthlessly slashed NASA's budget what was left was directed not towards exploring Mars but towards the space shuttle program interestingly this wasn't the end of the ntp dream the USSR was working on its own nuclear propulsion concept which continued to be funded even as the American one shut down but a Soviet program was beset by its own problems and work folded in 1980 without a single test and so the ntp dream died not to be revived until much closer to our own era by which time there'd be a whole other form of nuclear propulsion in the mix NEP had been around as a theory for a little while but it was only in 2003 that NASA went ahead and teamed up with the U.S Navy and the department of energy to flesh out the concept for project Prometheus unlike the 1958 project no one in 2003 was imagining astronauts Walking on Mars they were more interested in making probes that could go really far really fast and pull off some incredible science unfortunately Prometheus was canned by NASA in 2005 due to issues with NASA's budget it's only been recently as the agency has got an interest in boosting solar electric propulsion tech for its upcoming Artemis Moon missions that NEP has rebounded as a concept now that it has though it looks a whole lot like it might be here to stay unlike in 1973 or 2005 there are currently no signs that NASA or Congress are in budget cutting mode instead we're at a point where NASA is mandated to work on nuclear attack to put a reactor on the moon where Congress is side eyeing China's burgeoning space program and appropriating extra money to make sure that the U.S stays ahead of the game as a result dollars are starting to flow into projects like the University of Florida on projects that could transform our current methods of interplanetary travel as profoundly as the railroad transformed Journeys Across America and that could pay off sooner than you might think with a stated goal of Landing cargo on Mars in 2033 ahead of human visitation in 2039. nazarone has a limited window of time to get its new Hardware Designs logged in to make the choice between ntp NEP or a bimodal system according to Scientific American the decision realistically needs to come by 2027 to make building a workable rocket in time a reality that means we might now just be four years away from the beginning of a mega project on par with the first Transcontinental Railroad one of the things we love about making these Space videos is how often they leave us with a sense of wonder with a sense of standing on the edge of something that will expand our Horizons in in this case is something that could finally make humankind an interplanetary species our species may have been dreaming about this since 1958 but it really seems like now finally those bygone dreams may be about to come true thank you

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 631,394

Keywords: nuclear propulsion, bimodal nuclear propulsion, nuclear thermal propulsion, nuclear electric propulsion, space propulsion system, space propulsion innovation, nuclear rocket technology, nuclear thermal, nuclear electric, new nuclear engine, travel to mars, faster than spacex starship...

Id: Hi5FCDZQzpA

Length: 19min 42sec (1182 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2023