The United States began developing a spacecraft with a thermal nuclear rocket engine.
Creature ordered Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). A project called “Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations” (DRACO) should be completed by 2025.
As of mid-April, the project has entered the technical design stage, which will last for the next 18 months. Within that timeframe, contractor General Atomics is to create a nuclear reactor for the engine, and two other corporations, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin, are to develop competing projects for demonstration and working spacecraft that will use the new engines. The winner will be selected after the submission of projects, which will move on to the next stage.
Note that the Pentagon has set the task of creating an engine reactor that will operate on low-enriched uranium fuel with a U-235 isotope content of 5 to 20%.
Let us explain that now spacecraft are powered by chemical and electric rocket engines. The first option allows you to quickly perform maneuvers, but this type of movement is uneconomical and requires a lot of fuel. The second type of engine is bad for its low thrust, which is why a spacecraft with electric rocket engines performs a certain maneuver for a week, or even a month.
As reported OBOZREVATEL, in Russia they decided build a new orbital station instead of the outdated International Space Station.
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