SPACE — In the next few years, NASA plans to send several astrobiology missions to Venus and Mars to look for evidence of extraterrestrial life. This will occur simultaneously with human missions to the Moon and Mars.
Outside the inner Solar System, there are also ambitious plans to send robotic missions to Jupiter’s moon Europa, Saturn’s Titan, and other ocean-filled bodies thought to harbor exotic life. To achieve that goal, NASA is investing in several exciting new technologies through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.
An array of emerging technologies is already on the shortlist. These include solar-powered aircraft, bioreactors, lightsails (solar sails), hibernation technology, astrobiology experiments and nuclear propulsion technology. What stands out this year is the concept
Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) or thin film nuclear isotope engine rocket, a proposal from James Bickford Cs, a member of the senior technical staff at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.
Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket Graphics (TFINER). Image: James Bickford
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The technology relies on the decay of radioactive isotopes to produce propulsion. Recently, the concept was selected by NIAC for Phase I development.
As Bickford and his colleagues’ proposal paper shows, advanced propulsion is critical to realizing several next-generation mission concepts. This includes sending a telescope to the focal point of the Sun’s gravitational lens and encountering a passing interstellar object.
The mission concept requires super speeds that are not possible with current conventional rocketry. Although Solar Sails are being further researched for fast transit missions in the Solar System and Proxima Centauri, the technology cannot perform the propulsive maneuvers required in space.
Oh yes, Proxima Centauri is the closest star system to the Solar system, only four light years from us. A number of Proxima planets are most similar to Earth and are thought to be rich in life elements.
Also read: Video of testing a rocket that can eat itself, new space-friendly technology
Current technology-enabled nuclear concepts include nuclear-thermal and nuclear-electric propulsion (NTP/NEP). Because they have the thrust needed to reach various locations in outer space. However, as Bickford and his team note, such technology requires large, heavy aircraft and, most importantly, is expensive to produce.
“Instead, we propose a thin-film nuclear isotope engine with the capability of searching, locating, and then returning samples from distant, fast-moving interstellar objects,” they wrote. “The same technology allows gravitational lens telescopes to be reoriented so that a single mission can observe multiple high-value targets.”
How Nuclear Isotope Aircraft Work and Construction
The basic concept of nuclear technology is similar to that of solar sails. However, it relies on thin sheets of radioactive isotopes that use the momentum produced by decay to generate thrust. As depicted in the proposal, the basic design uses sheets of Thorium-228 ~10 micrometers (0.01 mm) thick.
2024-01-24 06:08:00
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